Cenci: The Florentine Carnival Fritters, with Recipe

The Ten Commandments of Cenci ©

1. It’s the sweet of Carnival, right alongside rice fritters (frittelle di riso) and schiacciata alla fiorentina (Florentine sweet flatbread). It’s one of the first sweets you learn to make with your grandmothers.
2. They’re also called crogetti, frangette, frappe, chiacchiere di monaca…
3. In Livorno they also make them round and call them orecchie di Aman (“Haman’s ears”), a specialty that comes from the Jewish community.
4. The first cenci were called crespelli, or guanti (“gloves”) when they were shaped like hands.
5. There are no shortcuts… they have to be fried; no oven can pull it off. Forget your diets and diet plans — you’ll go for a walk later.
6. When you buy them, eat them on the spot, or you risk getting home with a bag of crumbs from all your fussing with it.
7. You need good oil to fry them properly… don’t you dare complain they turned out bad when it comes out you used the same oil you fried the fish in, for heaven’s sake.
8. Eggs, sugar, flour, butter, Vin Santo, and orange or lemon zest. No leavening whatsoever needed.
9. The cencio is a dangerous item: once you start eating them, you have to reach the bottom.
10. The cencio never lies — if you’ve eaten one, the sugar on your sweater gives you away.

The Cenci Recipe

• 300 g 00 flour
• 2 eggs plus 1 yolk
• 80 g sugar
• 50 g butter
• lemon zest
• half a glass of Vin Santo
• a pinch of salt
• powdered sugar

With a whisk or an electric beater, beat the eggs and the yolk together with the sugar, the butter, and the pinch of salt until you have a smooth cream. Add the finely grated zest of half a lemon. Sift the flour and add it a little at a time to the mixture. Pour in the half glass of Vin Santo in a thin stream.

Let the dough rest, wrapped in plastic, for half an hour in the refrigerator. Now roll it out on a wooden board with a rolling pin. The thinner the sheet, the more the cenci will puff up as they cook. Cut them into their characteristic ribbon shape and fry them in hot oil, turning them on both sides until they are nicely golden. Drain them well of excess oil and let them cool. Dust them with sugar or powdered sugar.

Tips, Trivia and Variations

You can use orange zest instead of lemon. You can roll the dough out with a pasta machine. Some people add baking powder or baking soda, but generally you don’t need them.