italian suitcase: chiacchiere al forno (backed Mardi Gras fritters)

It's Carnival time in Italy, and Mardi Gras fritters are a must! In Milan we have time to enjoy these sweets until next Saturday.

The tradition calls for frying them in abundant vegetable oil, but I don't particularly fancy fried food, all those chemical processes going on in the oil are not healthy at all!

Baked version for us this Saturday.

Ingredients:

300g plain white flour

2 eggs (room temperature)

60g butter (room temperature)

60g sugar

3 tbsp milk or liqueur (room temperature)

1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking powder

Preparation:

Mix all the ingredients until you get a smooth dough. Cut a 1/3 of dough and place the remaining under a bowl, this will prevent the dough to dry out.

Using a pasta maker start pulling the dough, initially with the largest setting and then move to the medium one (mine is 4).

Use a pastry wheel to form the fritters and make 2 incisions in the middle of each. Bake in a preheated oven at 180˚ for 10 minutes or until they turn golden.

Dust icing sugar on top.