1 pkg. dry yeast
1 egg
2 c. flour
3/4 c. warm water
1/2 tsp. salt
Oil for frying
This simple list of ingredients makes the best stuff. I can remember my grandmother making up a few batches over the years. For some reason I have a craving for them today. Sfingi.
Sfingi are deep fried Italian doughnuts. Made at home, eaten warm and melting in your mouth. They are the perfect treat. I can still see Grandma mixing the dough, letting it rise (twice--covered with a kitchen dishcloth and on top of the refrigerator) and then using this cool technique of rolling the dough off her fingers while she sort of twisted her wrists and letting it drop into the hot oil. I never, ever could master that movement. The finishing touch was the powdered sugar, usually she sprinkled it on but I think I also remember her shaking them in a brown paper bag with the sugar inside. Oh my goodness, they were incredible!!
The yeast part makes me laugh. When she died, as we were in the very Italian funeral home on a very very very hot week in May, my cousin Harry saved the day for me. I was talking about sfingi and how Grandma would not be able to make them since she didn't have any yeast in heaven. We giggled because a year or two earlier we had convinced her to make some on a day she was not planning on doing it and someone had to run to the corner store to get her the yeast. Well that day in the funeral home, Harry, being the incredibly spontaneous man he is, went out and bought a package of yeast and we slipped it into the casket before the end of the day. Yes, I know it was a little odd to do that. Honestly, it all seemed perfectly normal at the time; that little yellow and red envelope that she could take with her and then be ready to use when we were all together. (I don't really think heaven will require the same kind of preparation to cook anything, but I just don't know for sure, so we were kind of making our own heavenly arrangements just in case!).
I have never attempted to make the sfingi for myself. I don't know if anyone in my family has. I don't think it will be as hard now that I have been cooking for decades but I do know it wont be the same. Maybe I should just savor the memory and get a funnel cake the next chance I get. Not the same at all but fried dough and powdered sugar is good no matter what it is called.
1 egg
2 c. flour
3/4 c. warm water
1/2 tsp. salt
Oil for frying
This simple list of ingredients makes the best stuff. I can remember my grandmother making up a few batches over the years. For some reason I have a craving for them today. Sfingi.
Sfingi are deep fried Italian doughnuts. Made at home, eaten warm and melting in your mouth. They are the perfect treat. I can still see Grandma mixing the dough, letting it rise (twice--covered with a kitchen dishcloth and on top of the refrigerator) and then using this cool technique of rolling the dough off her fingers while she sort of twisted her wrists and letting it drop into the hot oil. I never, ever could master that movement. The finishing touch was the powdered sugar, usually she sprinkled it on but I think I also remember her shaking them in a brown paper bag with the sugar inside. Oh my goodness, they were incredible!!
The yeast part makes me laugh. When she died, as we were in the very Italian funeral home on a very very very hot week in May, my cousin Harry saved the day for me. I was talking about sfingi and how Grandma would not be able to make them since she didn't have any yeast in heaven. We giggled because a year or two earlier we had convinced her to make some on a day she was not planning on doing it and someone had to run to the corner store to get her the yeast. Well that day in the funeral home, Harry, being the incredibly spontaneous man he is, went out and bought a package of yeast and we slipped it into the casket before the end of the day. Yes, I know it was a little odd to do that. Honestly, it all seemed perfectly normal at the time; that little yellow and red envelope that she could take with her and then be ready to use when we were all together. (I don't really think heaven will require the same kind of preparation to cook anything, but I just don't know for sure, so we were kind of making our own heavenly arrangements just in case!).
I have never attempted to make the sfingi for myself. I don't know if anyone in my family has. I don't think it will be as hard now that I have been cooking for decades but I do know it wont be the same. Maybe I should just savor the memory and get a funnel cake the next chance I get. Not the same at all but fried dough and powdered sugar is good no matter what it is called.
Make the sfingi! I am sure you can do it and do it well. I never heard that story of the yeast! I am glad she will be prepared to receive all of us :)
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