Italian Crostoli

(makes 80-100)
Recipe from SBS Food Safari

A few weeks ago, mum was turning 60 so i asked her if she wanted anything, maybe some tai chi lessons or ballroom dancing, or a holiday?? She said, don't get me anything, i already have everything (typical mum, so hard to get anything for!), but if you want to get me something, i have this recipe that you can make for me. This recipe was for this sweet italian fried pastry, Italian crostoli, angel wings, light crispy ribbons of sweet pasta dough generously sprinkled with icing sugar. She had tried these one year at Christmas and loved them, but decided they were too expensive to buy regularly...

So, we did a bit of research and on her birthday we gathered together for an epic Crostoli-making afternoon! It was definitely an event that needed both my sister and I to help, and took a few hours to roll out the dough, cut, twist and then fry. It took a bit of perfecting, but we were pretty happy with the results, all up we probably made about 100 and devoured them in a week! :$

Prep time: 2hrs
Cooking time: 1hr

Ingredients:
500g plain flour
1/4 icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla bean paste (or essence)
1 tsp baking powder
Rind of 1 orange
Rind of 1 lemon
1/4 C butter, softened
1-2 T grappa (or masala)
3 eggs

Special equipment:
Pasta maker
Food processor
Ravioli cutting wheel

Method:
1. Combine the flour, icing sugar, baking powder, vanilla bean paste and rind in the food processor. Add in the butter until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

2. Place the dry mixture into a bowl. Create a well in the middle and add the grappa (or masala) and eggs. Combine ingredients with a knife, then with your hands to form a dough.

3. Transfer the dough to a lightly-floured work surface and knead for a few minutes until well-combined. Wrap in glad-wrap and rest for 30 minutes.
NB. Dough is slightly firm, not as soft as dough for bread or pasta. It should relax slightly after the rest.

4. Divide the dough into approximately 7x2cm pieces so it is easier to work with. Roll the first piece through the pasta machine on the widest setting. Fold it in half and run it through the machine again. Do this 7 times until it is smooth, then start rolling it out once on each narrow setting until you reach level 7. 
NB. You may need to flour and fold if the dough gets slightly sticky towards the end.
5. Cut the sheet into strips approximately  2cm wide and 7cm long. Using a ravioli cutting wheel gives a nice decorative effect, otherwise  a pastry knife or sharp knife is fine too. There seems to be 2 styles of crostoli, so we tried both;
a) Cut a slit in the middle, approximately 4cm long and loop both edges through to form a twist at either side.
b) Cut 2 shorter slits down the middle and don't loop.

6. When you have finished the dough, heat a pan with 4-5cm of vegetable oil until oil is hot enough to deep-fry (can test with a wooden chopstick or a sample piece, it should start forming bubbles around the chopstick or start deep-frying a sample piece. If using a deep-fryer, aim for 180˚C. 
7. Deep-fry small batches of crostoli in oil, flipping after it has become slightly firm (10-15sec) and then continue frying until pale golden (usually another 10-15sec). Drain on paper towel.
NB. This part is the trickiest as you have to be very speedy! It's recommended that you don't do more than 5 pieces at a time as it is hard to flip and remove fast enough!

8. Dust with icing sugar to serve!

We found it helpful to have an in-between draining system in a metal sieve over a pan, just helps reduce the oil.

Cheng family project!