Crispelle di riso (or zeppole di San Giuseppe), are the typical fried sweets of catania, rice-based, which are usually prepared in the period of Saint Joseph (march 19), so as to be a typical dessert of the feast of the father. It seems that to make this dessert may have been the first to the benedictine nuns of the monastery of Catania, italy, in the SIXTEENTH century, as ancient texts of the chroniclers of catania, so much so that the donuts are sometimes called the benedictine, today, because of their goodness and simplicity of preparation, crispelle di riso are popular all year round and almost inevitable at the end of each meal on Sundays or public holidays.

Ingredients

600 ml of milk

300 grams of rice

150 gr of flour 00

200 gr of honey

60 gr of caster sugar

10 gr of yeast

Zest of one orange, grated

A teaspoon of salt

Cinnamon q.b.

Powdered sugar q.b.

Oil for frying

Bring the milk to the boil. Add the salt and rice and cook over a low flame until the milk will not be absorbed completely by the rice. If the rice is not published already scotto, after you have absorbed the milk, add warm water and continue with cooking.
Then remove the rice from the heat and, once warm, add the flour, the sugar, the grated rind of the orange and the yeast dissolved in a little hot water. Knead well, cover the dough with cling film and leave to rise for 2 hours.
Once the preparation of the crispelle di riso will be leavened, remove the pieces from it and mould it in so many rods thick almost a finger, and 4-5 cm long.
Fry the crispelle rice on low heat in hot oil, done occasionally until they are well browned, and place them on absorbent paper to remove the excess oil, after transfer them on a serving dish and decorate with orange honey, warm mixed with a little water and a sprinkling of icing sugar mixed with a little cinnamon.