Zeppole

Ingredients

Pastry
1 cup water
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 eggs
Filling
6 egg yolks
3/4 cup superfine sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 ounce cornstarch
2 1/4 cups whole milk
1 tablespoon dark rum
1 teaspoon orange zest
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups whipping cream whipped
Powdered sugar for garnish
Berries for Garnish

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
2. In a saucepan, boil the water with the butter, salt and sugar. Add the flour all at once and cook over low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon until the mixture pulls away from the sides without sticking.
3. Remove from the heat and beat in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Let cool.
4. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. With a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip, pipe the dough into puffs on the sheet. Bake for 5 minutes.
5. Reduce oven heat to 350 degrees F. and bake for approximately 10 minutes more or until golden brown. Remove and let cool.

Filling

1. Beat the yolks with the sugar until very light. Add the flour and cornstarch to the yolk mixture. In a large saucepan over medium heat, bring the milk to a boil slowly, and add the yolk mixture while beating until smooth.
2. Over low heat, cook until thickened, stirring all the time. Remove from heat and add the rum, orange zest and vanilla. Let cool completely and fold in the whipped cream. Reserve some of the filler to pipe on top.
3. Split the pastries and hollow them out; fill and put the tops back on.  Pipe some filler on the top. Dust with powdered sugar. Garnish with berries. The berries shows are cranberries, but you can use any berry you would like.
4. This amount will make 4 servings.