Pistachio Bomboloni
Buongiorno! A couple weeks back I was daydreaming of trips to Tuscany. Who hasn’t dreamed of a vacation during this never-ending pandemic? I started scrolling through old pictures of my 2018 trip to Florence when, all of a sudden, I stumbled upon a little inspiration and immediately started salivating. While strolling around the Piazza del Duomo before our tour, we stepped into a touristy cafe for a quick bite and espresso. Behind the steamy glass pastry case, I spotted round, sugar coated pastries bursting with cream. It was love at first sight.
Now THAT is AMORE. Bomba, or bomboloni, are Italian versions of donuts. Light and fluffy fried dough with a creamy filling. Very similar to a Boston Creme classic, only it sounds a heck of a lot fancier. If you serve these at a backyard brunch, I guarantee your friends will be impressed.
To provide a unique, and true-to-Italy twist, I whipped up a pistachio pastry cream to fill my baby bomboloni. Before departing from Florence in 2018, I brought home a small jar of pistachio paste. That pistachio paste barely made it a week in my refrigerator back home because I kept sneaking small bites out of the jar until it had all but disappeared. Luckily, you can order similar Italian varieties on Amazon, Eataly, or your local pastry supplier. Sweet pistachio and custard go together like peanut butter and jelly, which means this pastry cream is not only eye-catching, it’s downright delicious.
Pistachio Pastry Cream (inspired by Martha Stewart and SeriousEats )
2 cups whole milk
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
4 large egg yolks
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed
1/2 cup (6 oz) pistachio paste
In a medium sauce pan, combine milk and scraped vanilla bean. Bring to a simmer over low heat. Remove vanilla milk from heat, cover, and let steep for 30 minutes.
Prepare an ice bath in a large bowl by combining half ice and cold water - set aside.
In a medium glass mixing bowl, stir together your sugar, cornstarch, and salt. I learned from SeriousEats, it’s great to place your bowl on top of a folded dish towel so it doesn’t slip around. Whisk in egg yolks until mixture is pale yellow and fluffy, which should take about 1 minute.
Remove the vanilla bean from your infused milk, and slowly pour your vanilla milk into the egg mixture while whisking constantly. The mixture should be pale yellow and homogenous.
Return the egg/milk mixture to your saucepan and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly until the mix begins to thicken. This step is important; “Once it thickens, continue to whisk, pausing every few seconds to check for bubbles, about 1 minute. When it begins to bubble, set a timer and continue whisking for 1 minute. This step is important to neutralize a starch-dissolving protein found in egg yolks.”
Remove the pastry cream from the stove and stir in your cold, cubed butter until melted and smooth. Strain the cream through a fine-mesh sieve into a medium glass bowl.
Stir in your pistachio paste until there are no obvious streaks of green. Again, you are looking for a homogenous, creamy texture. Immediately cover with plastic wrap, directly on the cream, to prevent a skin from forming.
Transfer bowl to prepared ice bath to chill for 30 minutes, then refrigerate until cold. This can take 2 hours, or make the day before making donuts and chill overnight.
Bomboloni (thanks to Inside the Rustic Kitchen)
2 cups strong bread flour (280g)
2 cups all purpose flour (280g)
3 large eggs at room temperature
6.5 tbsp butter softened (90g)
½ cup granulated sugar (100g)
½ cup lukewarm milk (120ml)
½ tsp vanilla paste or 1 tsp vanilla extract
2 ¼ tsp fast action yeast (7g)
1 small pinch of salt
2-3 tbsp baker’s sugar or confectioners sugar for rolling doughnuts in
sunflower or vegetable oil for frying (*@whippedupwhimy modification: I used peanut)
I followed Emily and Nathan’s recipe, almost, to a T so I won’t paste the detailed instructions. Click here for step-by-step photos from them!