Confetti and streamers are ever-present during the Carnival season… here’s a cute way to turn them into delicious sweet treats! Find this and many more recipes with pictures on the Giallozafferano App (in English) http://itunes.apple.com/app/giallozafferano-recipes/id384387249?mt=8
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Ingredients for the dough, about 1,5 lbs (700 g)
• 4 cups (500 g) of flour
• just under ½ cup (80 g) of sugar
• 1 pinch of vanilla powder
• 1/3 stick (40 g) of butter
• 3 medium eggs
• ½ tsp (3 g) of salt
• 2 tbsp (30 g) of milk
• 2 tbsp (30 g) of rum
• the grated zest of 1 lemon
• food colorings, to taste
For frying
• peanut oil, as needed
For sprinkling
• powdered sugar, to taste
First make the dough: take a large bowl, add the sifted flour, make an indentation, add the sugar, the salt, the vanilla powder, the softened butter, the grated lemon zest, the milk, the rum, or grappa, and the eggs, which have been beaten separately. Bring the ingredients together to form a dough in the bowl, after that transfer to a work surface and knead until smooth. Wrap in cling film and let it rest for half an hour in a cool place, but not in the fridge. Choose your favourite type of food coloring, I’m using gel food colorings because the color is brighter than liquid ones, but powder food coloring is fine too, perhaps dissolved in very little water; divide the dough into as many pieces as the number of colors you’ll be using. Firstly work on a stain-resistant surface, not a wooden board; secondly wear disposable gloves, to prevent staining your hands; lastly, add the chosen colors: I’m using blue, green — make a small indentation in the middle to prevent it from leaking out — red and yellow. Knead the dough to mix in the color; the colored dough should be immediately covered with cling film, do not leave it exposed to air as it will dry out quickly. Don’t worry if the color is not evenly distributed and the dough looks marbled: after using the pasta machine it will be nice and uniform. Wear new gloves for each color. Wrap the colored dough in cling film and move on to the other pieces. Take the colored dough and cut in half, one for the streamers and one for the confetti; take one portion and wrap the other one in cling film, to keep it from drying out, flatten a bit, then run it through the rollers of a pasta machine at the widest setting, so that the color evens out and the dough firms up; dust with flour and pass through the rollers until it is the proper color and consistency. The color gets better and better as you pass the dough through the rollers. Gradually narrow the machine setting until it’s 1 mm thick. The color now is even, without any streaks. My dough is still too moist, so I’ll run it through another few times dusting with flour until dry enough. The dough should be 1 mm thick and be uniform in color, with no holes. Reset the rollers to a medium setting; then turn it down another notch and run through the narrowest setting. Place it on a floured work surface, dust with more flour, after that use a fettuccine cutter to cut the dough into noodles that will look like streamers. Lay them gently on the work surface; make sure they don’t stick to each other. After cutting the dough into streamers, we are going to give them their distinctive spiral shape, just like when you throw them in the air, so you need metal tubes like this, such as cannoli molds. The noodles should be about 20-23 inches (50-60 cm) long; wrap the strip around the mould, taking care to make the second wrap overlap the first one, and brush with the egg white to help them stick together, so the streamer will maintain its shape during frying; wrap it around the metal tube. In the meantime, heat the peanut oil for frying: it should be around 340°F (170°C) at the most, or the dough will discolor and brown too much. Overlap the last wrap and brush with the egg white to hold the other end in place, so it won’t unroll during frying. This step requires quite a bit of time, so cover the rest of the dough with cling film or it will harden and dry out and you won’t be able to wrap it anymore. We’re ready for frying, take a slotted spoon and drop gently into the oil, fry for a short time, so as not to lose its bright color. Place on kitchen paper to drain and let it cool a bit before removing the metal tube; meanwhile fry the other streamers. Take the other half of the dough and roll it out as thin as before, then cut out circles with a round cookie cutter, mine is 1 ¼ inches (3 cm) in diameter but you can make any size you want. We’re ready for frying, so take the slotted spoon, add 5-6 confetti at a time and drop into the oil at 340°F (170°C) for a few seconds. Repeat with all the remaining confetti and streamers. Our colourful confetti and streamers are ready to enjoy, a sprinkling of powdered sugar as a finishing touch, not too much as you don’t want to cover up the colors!