Carnival in Italy traditionally calls for deep fried sweets.

We have so many, from fritters to donughts, the deep fried sweet egg custard is usually part of a mixed deep fried dish from bologna, ” fritto misto alla bolognese” where some savoury things like cauliflowers and meat bites meet sweet ones like egg custard and apples.

Today I want to focus on the egg custard because it’s one of my favourite pieces: I did the batch in the photo last year, I had many photos but now I cannot find the SD card, I cannot find the photos on the pc…

I don’t know if I will make this custard again anytime soon so I had to scroll my Instagram account and find the only photo I’ve posted!

Lesson to learn: never wait that long before posting a recipe!

Let’s jump to the recipe, it’s not difficult but it requests a little time.

Print Recipe

Deep fried sweet egg custard.

Servings: 4

Ingredients

60 g plain flour
500 ml whole milk
125 g caster sugar
4 eggs
1 lemon, zest only
1 pinch salt
fine breadcrumbs to coat
frying oil
icing sugar for dusting

Instructions

Boil milk with a big piece of lemon zest ( yellow part only), in a bowl beat 3 eggs, sugar, flour and the salt pinch.
Pour the milk over the batter in a thin string while mixing well.
Pour the mixture through a colander into a pot and return over the fire.
Let it simmer until it thickens, then pour it into a buttered tin and let it cool well.
Keep it in the fridge for a couple of hours then cut in cubes with a sharp knife.
Coat the cubes in breadcrumbs, then soak into the remained egg, beaten, then again in breadcrumbs then fry in hot oil ( the original recipe calls for hot pig fat, lard) until gold.
Put the fried cubes over kitchen paper to absorb excess of oil and sprinkle with icing sugar.