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St. Joseph’s/ Father Day Cream Puffs/ Bignè di San Giuseppe are deep-fried choux pastry puffs filled with pastry cream and dusted with powdered sugar. This recipe is for the Roman version of Bignè di San Giuseppe.
Don’t be fooled or bias by the deep-fried word because these cream puffs are surprisingly light and fluffy (and easy to make). The best part arrives when you give a bite and the pastry cream bursts in your mouth.
Go big or go home sounds the appropriate motto to describe the sweets extravaganza that used to reign in my family for Father’s Day (celebrated on March 19th in Italy). Let me introduce quickly my family so you can understand what I talking about. My Mamma, Pupa was from Palermo, Sicily (and this alone should let you understand a lot), and my father, Mario, was from Naples (!!!).
After living Sicily, my parents moved to Latina, a small town close to Rome because of my mother’s job. My father’s job was in Rome (he commuted to and from Rome every day for 35 years, what a hero). He deeply loved Rome and Romans (when I moved there in my 20s for studying, I know he was secretly happy). Of course my husband Matteo is from Rome.
All this intro is to say that in my family we had THREE different traditional treats to celebrate Father’s day. We had: Zeppole di San Giuseppe from Naples, Sfinci from Palermo and Bignè di San Giuseppe from Rome.
Today I will show you the Roman Bignè di San Giuseppe. They are traditionally deep-fried but there is also a baked version. The Sicilian Sfinci are deep-fried too but covered (yep, on top not filled) with the Cannoli filling (ricotta with sugar, cinnamon, and chocolate chips) on top (!!!) and then sprinkled with pistachios. Candied cherry and orangette complete this pure joy.
The Neapolitan Zeppole are baked or fried, topped with cream pastry and crowned by an amarena cherry.
You can make baked Zeppole using this recipe: https://ciaobellakitchen.com/zeppole-di-san-giuseppe/
Important note: you can make this Bignè recipe completely gluten-free. I just swapped to TraderJoe GF flour (ratio 1:1, same weight) and used cornstarch instead of flour (always 1:1, same weight) for the pastry cream recipe. I made it for my sweet friend Katrina who couldn’t believe they were not GF.
The method for make Bignè is the same as pate à choux or eclairs.
It’s pretty precise, you need a scale.
Ingredients:
For 50 Pastry Puffs (I usually make half dose)
- 500 g water
- 125 g butter
- 7 g salt
- 300 g all-purpose flour SIFTED a couple of times (don’t skip this step)
- 500 g eggs (usually 500g are from 10 eggs but check by weight them, they need to be the same weight of water) at room temperature
- Vegetable oil for frying
For the Pastry Cream
- 460 g whole milk
- 6 egg yolks
- 120 g sugar
- 60 g corn starch
- Lemon rind or Vanilla extract
Powder sugar to dust for final decoration
Instructions:
Starting with the pastry puffs:
Note: you can make one day ahead the choux pastry dough and keep it in the fridge.
- In a medium saucepan, combine water, butter, and salt.
- Bring to a boil, stirring with a wooden spoon until the butter has melted completely.
- Reduce heat to low and add flour.
- Stir the ingredients vigorously until a ball-shaped dough forms and a white film forms on the bottom of the saucepan (about 5 minutes).
- emove from the heat and let it rest a few minutes so it’s not too hot for the eggs.
- Add just one egg at a time and incorporate well each before adding the next one. Do this until you have a thick cream. It’s possible that you won’t need all the eggs.
- In a deep saucepan heat the oil to 370 degrees (If you don’t have a frying thermometer place a toothpick into the oil if it starts bubbling all around the temperature is good).
- Use two tablespoons to scoop out the dough and drop it carefully and gently into the hot oil, by using one spoon to push the dough off of the other.
- Do this for about 4 bignè at a time, do not crowd them in the pot.
- Cook until golden and puffy, turning with a slotted spoon to fry evenly on all sides. (If they brown too quickly it means the oil is too hot).
- The bignè require long frying, like 7/8 minutes as after 3 mins you will notice they will pop and almost double in size and they have to keep frying to be fully cooked.
- When done place on a paper towel and let cool.
Now make the pastry cream. (You can make it ahead, one day or two and keep it in the fridge).
- This recipe is particularly made for the bignè because it’s very thick and it’s perfect to fill the puffs (and to eat directly from the bowl with a spoon, oink)
- I like to use the Montersino method (a famous Italian Pastry Maestro) to make this pastry cream because it’s quick and super easy.
- I made it many times without failing so I really recommend it. Basically, you wait for the liquids to slightly boil, add the eggs beaten with the starch, and wait few seconds without touching it until it makes a big bubble. After that, all you need is just to whisk a for a little and it’s ready. More specifically:
- In a medium saucepan heat the milk with vanilla extract or lemon rind. Meanwhile, beat very well the eggs with sugar, add cornstarch and mix gently with a spatula.
- When the milk starts bubbling on the sides of the pan it’s time to pour the mounted eggs and wait, without stirring. As soon as the milk goes over the eggs making a small volcano it’s time to quickly whisk the pastry cream for a few seconds and it’s ready! Remove the lemon rind (I love to eat it when it’s cool) if you used it, and cover with cling film touching the pastry cream to avoid the creation of any film on top.
- When the cream has cooled it’s time to fill the bignè. Using a skewer or a piping nozzle make a hole in your pastry bun and fill with pastry cream using a piping bag. Pipe more on top and dust with powdered sugar.
Now tell me how does it feel after that first bite!
