Italian Galani. Carnival recipe

How to make Italian galani. Carnival dessert.

They are very reminiscent of Galician carnival ears , but these galani (Gallic in the singular) are a sweet from a little distant land.

In Italy, during Lent and Easter , it is a tradition to prepare galani in Italian homes. Depending on the area where they are, they receive a different name: in the Venetian mainland up to the Emilia-Romagna region, they are known as ” crostoli “; in Lombardy as ” chiacchere “; in other areas ” sfrappole “, ” lattughe “, etc.

If we focus on the Italian carnival, we can complete this recipe with two other sweets that we must not forget,  the fritole or fritters of Carnival  and the castagnole .

The name of galani is typical of the island of Venice, where these delicious sweets are characterized by having a rectangular to rhomboid shape, with curled edges.

Inside, a cut or two are made and some use it to twist the dough inside. Thus they are wrinkled, as if they were handkerchiefs.

Galani are very easy to prepare and very grateful. You have to stretch the dough well so that they are crispy when frying them. It is surprising that such a basic and so cheap sweet can be so delicious.

We assure you that they are addictive and that once you try one you will not be able to stop. As the slogan of a well-known brand of potato chips says: ” once you pop, you can’t stop “.

Perfect to accompany after dinner and accompany coffee, infusion, a glass of liquor or whatever you are used to having. Do not stop doing them because they are really yummy.

Preparation of the Galani dough. Kneading and cutting

1. In a deep container we put the egg and milk. Add the grappa, the butter (previously melted) and the lemon zest. We stir until homogeneous.
2. Add the sugar and salt. We remove again.
3. Add the wheat flour, tablespoon by tablespoon. Stirring and mixing well before adding the next tablespoon.
4. We will obtain a smooth and soft dough, very easy to handle, which we let rest for an hour at room temperature. We can use the deep container used to make the mixture, covered with a clean cloth.
5. After the resting time we stretch the very fine dough with the help of a rolling pin. We do this by dividing the dough into two or three parts and working each of them separately so that it does not occupy too much.
6. It is a fat mass, very grateful to work, which should be sprinkled with a little flour so that it does not stick to the roller or to the work surface.
7. We cut the dough into diamonds of about 6 x 10 cm. with a pastry cutter wheel. With the same wheel, we make one or two cuts inside each gallon.
8. We reserve until frying while we continue working the rest of the dough.

Frying of the Galani. Final presentation

1. With the cuts of dough we return to make a ball, stretch and cut in the same way.
2. Heat abundant vegetable oil in a frying pan and fry the galani for a few seconds or until many balls form on the surface. Then we turn and fry on the opposite side.
3. When the galani are golden we transfer them to a source covered with absorbent kitchen paper to remove the excess oil. We repeat the operation until we finish with all the galani.
4. Before serving, sprinkle the galani liberally with icing sugar.

You can see in this step by step how to prepare this recipe for Carnival galani , I am sure you will prepare them on many occasions.

Tips for some Galani of yummy

• The oil must be hot, but not steaming, because the galani would not calcine. To get the temperature right it is best to fry a test one and adjust the fire and the temperature of the oil.
• With the amounts of ingredients indicated above a generous amount of galani comes out and, although they are delicious, it is possible that they will be left over.
• To preserve them and keep them crisp we store them in a large tupper, covered with absorbent kitchen paper and tightly closed. They last in very good condition between three and four days. More we can not say, because at home they fly every time we do them.
• So that the oil temperature does not drop abruptly, we fry the galani in batches of three or four.
• Do not suffer if the galani are deformed on the way to the frying pan, in many families and towns they bend on purpose. And it has its charm.