Authentic Chiacchiere Recipe Italy, Europe
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Introduction & history
Crunchy, brittle and full of flavor — this, in a nutshell, is chiacchiere, an Italian deep-fried pastry most commonly prepared during carnival and other festive occasions, such as Christmas, New Year and Easter. Made with the simplest ingredients possible — flour, eggs, sugar, salt, and butter — these golden bites still manage to be packed with scents and flavors. Mostly, this can be linked to the fact that the dough is enhanced with lemon or orange zest and liqueur such as the Italian grappa brandy, white wine, rum or Marsala wine. The preparation starts by mixing flour, eggs, egg yolks, butter, salt, sugar, lemon or orange zest, and liqueur, and kneading them into a firm dough. The dough is left to rest shortly, and then it is rolled into thin sheets and cut using a fluted pastry wheel which makes distinctive zigzag edges. Sheets of dough can be cut into rectangles or rhombi, often with an additional incision or two in the middle, or into long strips which ... Read more
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Cooking tips
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flour
Contrary to popular belief, the best flour for chiacchiere is not soft or self-rising flour, but regular hard wheat flour. It allows the dough to rise during frying without breaking and without absorbing oil, making chiacchiere light and crispy. -
yeast
Putting yeast in chiacchiere dough varies from region to region, but it's also a matter of personal taste. The dough with yeast will make the pastry more brittle and filled with air pockets, while the dough without yeast will result in a more compact pastry. -
liqueurs
The dough for chiacchiere usually contains a small amount of liqueur, which has two functions — it gives a richer taste to the pastry, and it prevents the dough from soaking up too much oil during frying. In the northern parts of Italy they use grape-based pomace brandy grappa, in central Italy regular white wine or rum are often used, Bologna prefers anise liqueurs, in the South, they pair the dough ... Read more -
lemon or orange zest
Finely grated orange or lemon zest gives the dough a slightly acidic, fresh note which is in perfect balance with its deep-fried shell. Make sure you choose organic fruit free from pesticides and wash it thoroughly before grating the zest. -
cutting
The dough should be rolled very thinly before cutting. Use a rolling pin or a dough sheet machine. If you choose to roll out the dough manually, lightly flour the working surface. To give the edges of chiacchiere their distinctive zigzag shape, use a fluted pastry wheel for cutting. Chiacchiere can be cut into strips or rectangles with one or two parallel slits in the middle, while strips are often ... Read more -
frying
Vegetable seed oil or olive oil are most commonly used for frying chiacchiere, but if you wish to do it old school, try using lard. When heating the oil, make sure it doesn’t get too hot — a temperature between 170 and 180˚C is optimal. To check if the oil is hot enough, immerse a piece of dough. If the dough falls to the bottom of the frying pan, the oil is too cold; and if it burns quickly, the ... Read more -
baking
An alternative method of preparing chiacchiere is baking them in the oven. Lay them on a parchment paper and bake for 7 to 8 minutes at 190˚C. This makes them less caloric, but lacking that special deep-fried flavor.
Recipe variations
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Italian Academy of Cuisine's Lombardian Chiacchiere
Ready in 30minThis very basic recipe was adapted from AccademiaItalianaCucina.it, and describes how chiacchiere is made in the northern Italian region of Lombardy. The dough contains no alcohol, and the frying is done in olive oil. The original name of the recipe, chiacchiere delle monache, or monk-style chiacchiere, was given because this pastry was originally prepared in convents as a treat offered to their benefactors.
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Chiacchiere alla Campania con Sanguinaccio Cream
Ready in 55minThis recipe describes how to make chiacchiere the way they do it in Southern Italy. These crunchy pastries are often served with sanguinaccio, a luscious chocolate cream which was originally made with pig’s blood, an ingredient omitted from the modern recipes ever since it was banned in 1992. Instructions on how to prepare sanguinaccio are also included in this recipe.
Italian Academy of Cuisine's Lombardian Chiacchiere
PREP 15min
COOK 15min
READY IN 30min
This very basic recipe was adapted from AccademiaItalianaCucina.it, and describes how chiacchiere is made in the northern Italian region of Lombardy. The dough contains no alcohol, and the frying is done in olive oil. The original name of the recipe, chiacchiere delle monache, or monk-style chiacchiere, was given because this pastry was originally prepared in convents as a treat offered to their benefactors.
Ingredients
Lombardian Chiacchiere
500 g white flour
1 egg and 2 egg yolks
50 g butter
pinch of salt
extra virgin olive oil
icing sugar
Preparation
Lombardian Chiacchiere
Knead the dough with flour, eggs, egg yolks, butter and a pinch of salt.
Roll out the dough into thin sheets and cut into squares or rhombi using a fluted pastry wheel, making another incision in the middle. Alternatively, you can also cut the dough into strips and tie them into knots.
Fry the chiacchiere in deep hot oil and dust them with icing sugar
Other Variations
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Chiacchiere alla Campania con Sanguinaccio Cream
Ready in 55minThis recipe describes how to make chiacchiere the way they do it in Southern Italy. These crunchy pastries are often served with sanguinaccio, a luscious chocolate cream which was originally made with pig’s blood, an ingredient omitted from the modern recipes ever since it was banned in 1992. Instructions on how to prepare sanguinaccio are also included in this recipe.
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