The reason why a person, especially as a kid, loves this day of celebration is soon said: it is a day of pure joy and fun where almost all worries are cancelled out, to make way for a whole day of carefree celebrations and fun. But in addition to colors, jokes and costumes, there is another memory, another peculiarity of this day of celebrations that has always made me love carnival.
The sweets.
The desserts that have always accompanied me during this day are the chatter (or frappe as they are called in Rome), a light and tasty pastry, sweet and crunchy, so good that you could eat more than one serving. Along with the plain kind, there is also the stuffed variety, where you can indulge with the filling. Today I propose these two recipes, just as we handed them down from parent to child for countless generations.
Have a good carnival, and remember: at carnival every joke is fair game!
For the Chiacchiere recipe (chatter)
First of all, put 40gr of butter out of the fridge and let it soften at room temperature. Now mix 500gr of “0” flour together with 5gr of baking powder in a large bowl. Help yourself during this part of the process by mixing with a fork to make sure that the yeast is properly combined with the flour.
Now add 80g of sugar and 4 eggs (3 whole and one egg yolk) and a teaspoon of salt.
You will have to reach a smooth and soft consistency, to the point where you can easily press tour thumb in the dough. Let the dough rest in the film at room temperature (not above 22 °, otherwise the butter could separate and make it difficult to spread the dough) for 1 hour.
After this time divide the dough into 5 portions and pull it with a rolling pin as thin as possible, until it reaches a thickness of 2/3 mm.To pull the dough, sprinkle a smooth work surface with a generous amount of flour (a wooden pastry board would be ideal) and flour the rolling pin too.The ideal would be to use an adjustable dough strainer.
Once the dough is cut, cut the rectangles with the toothed wheel (5x10cm for example) and let it rest for about ten minutes. Meanwhile, fill a small pan with frying oil (peanut or high oleic seeds are the best, since they have a high smoke point) and bring to 150/160 degrees.
Now you can dip your dough rectangles and fry them for 3 minutes (be careful not to immerse too much or it could overflow the oil), then drain them on absorbent kitchen paper and finish them by sprinkling plenty of icing sugar.
For the Bugie (stuffed chatter)
Using the same dough mixture from the recipe for the chiacchiere,
divide it into 5 portions and roll it up to a thickness of 2/3 mm.
Now, divide it into squares of 8x8 cm and on a half put a spoonful of custard (or the filling you prefer, jams or creams).
Fold the square of dough and pass the toothed wheel on the 3 "open" corners.
This way you will have a cream filled rectangle with three serrated sides. Let your sweets rest for ten minutes in the fridge and then fry them in hot oil (150/160 °) for 3/4 minutes, until they change to a light copper shade.Place the filled chiacchiere on absorbent kitchen paper and then sprinkle some powdered sugar.
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