Zeppole are an Italian style ball doughnut with more variations than one could count. They can be both sweet and savory, light and fluffy or dense and cakelike.

It seems that there is little zeppole can't be - including delicious. The dinner at Tenh Penh has proved to be particularly inspirational for recipes, for it is there that I had the most delicious doughtnut I've ever had in my life.

I should add right now that I have never liked doughnuts. I'm not typically a fan of much anything that's sweet, instead favoring savory preparations or a dessert with a strong sourness or bitterness - like this Meyer lemon tart. However, at Tenh Penh I ordered a doughnut dessert just because I wanted to see how they made them.

When they arrived they were piping hot, fresh from the fryer and coated in a cinnamon sugar mixture. I have never enjoyed a doughnut quite so much as I enjoyed those little beauties.

After returning home I was still itching to have another so I set out to find just the right type of recipe. I chose, instead of a yeast recipe, a doughnut leavened with baking powder. The addition of sour cream adds not sourness, but a creamy, underlying richness and a complexity of flavor that strays far from the flat sweetness of your typical maple bar.

Coated in cinnamon sugar and enjoyed with a steaming hot cup of coffee - few things beat an after dinner experience like that.

Sour Cream Zeppole

Yields approximately 10-12 doughnuts

1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 cup cake flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

pinch salt

1/4 cup sugar

2 oz (60g) sour cream

1 egg

1/2 tablespoon olive oil

oil for frying

cinnamon sugar for coating

Whisk together flours, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl beat together sugar, sour cream, egg, and oil. Combine with the flour mixture and let sit, covered, in the refrigerator for one hour.

Heat oil to 350ºF and drop batter by the tablespoonful into the oil. Cook for about 3-5 minutes, turning often, or until a deep golden brown. Fry in batches of no more than three at a time to prevent the oil cooling too much. Let sit on a wire rack covered with paper towel until cool enough to handle and then roll in cinnamon sugar. Serve immediately.

Keep leftovers in airtight container in refrigerator and reheat for a few seconds in the microwave for a delicious repeat.

Nutritional Estimate

Because I am not a laboratory, I have no way of calculating exactly how much oil is absorbed during the frying process and therefore find it difficult to provide a caloric estimation upon which I would rely. However, according to the database at Spark People.com, a good rule of thumb is to calculate about 150 calories and 7g of fat per 1 oz. of doughnut.