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03/13/2000 Archived Entry: "Irish Soda Bread, Zeppole di San Giuseppe"

I know a nun who can rattle off a special baked good for almost any saint’s day you mention. However, as neither a Catholic nor much of a baker, I only know two saintly baking associations, and both are this week. St. Patrick’s Day is this Friday, March 17, and the Feast Day of St. Joseph is this Sunday, March 19. I know you all know that if Irish Soda Bread has a special day then it’s St. Pat’s. However, you might not know that on St. Jospeh’s Day southern Italians make a special zeppole.

Zeppole di San Giuseppe are nothing like the fried dough balls one buys at street fairs. They are instead exactly what New Yorkers call “French crullers,” which is to say an eggy cream puff pastry (paté a choux) that is fried in rings, except that the Italian version for St. Joseph are filled with pastry cream. They are, in French parlance, beignet; bigné in Italian. Sicilians also call them sfince or sfingi and often fill them with ricotta cream – like cannoli -- instead of cooked custard.

The St. Joeseph’s form of zeppole were created in Naples in 1840 by Don Pasquale Pintauro, whose pastry shop and café, Pintauro, continues to thrive at 275 Via Roma, one of Naples’ main shopping streets.

Many good zeppole di San Giuseppe are made in New York’s Italian bakeries, too. The ones from Royal Crown, 6512 14th Ave., in Brooklyn, are my favorite. They’ve been making them for a month already, but only from Wednesday through Saturday. If you want to go to the considerable trouble of making Zeppole di San Giuseppe yourself, I have a recipe in Naples At Table.

Soda bread is easy to make, however, and it’s hard to find a commercial one as rich and delicious as the following. It’s more like cake than bread, which is what people want these days. You should know that the original soda bread was very spartan, a dense, flat loaf raised by the action of soured milk and baking soda, baked in an iron griddle in the hearth. It may have a had a touch of sugar, but no butter or eggs. It got most of its flavor from the peat fire in which it was baked.


Irish Soda Bread
Makes 1 loaf, serving 6 to 8

This is a recipe from my days at the New York Daily News. It was one of our most popular recipes, requested year after year.

2 cups unsifted all-purpose flour (measure by spooning flour into a measuring cup and leveling off)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons caraway seeds
3 tablespoons butter or solid white shortening
1 cup buttermilk or sour milk
2/3 cup raisins, dark or golden, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease an 8- or 9-inch round layer pan.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and 3 tablespoons of the sugar. Stir to mix.

Add the butter or shortening and cut into the flour mixture with 2 knives or a pastry blender, until the fat is in fine pieces.

Make a well in center of the flour mixture. Pour in the buttermilk and add raisins. Mix lightly.

Turn out onto a lightly floured board and knead gently a few times. Shape into a 5-inch round loaf and place in prepared pan.

Using a sharp knife or scissors, cut dough crosswise into quarters, about 1/3 of the way through. Brush top surface with melted butter and sprinkle with the remaining tablespoon of sugar mixed with the cinnamon.

Bake in the preheated 375-degree oven for 35 to 45 minutes until golden brown.

Note: For better nutrition and good taste appeal stir in 2 tablespoons wheat germ or 2 tablespoons rolled oats with the flour.