Recipes

St. Joseph’s Pants

  • Serves

    makes 5 dozen

At Rizzo's Malabar Inn in Crabtree, Pennsylvania, chef Rizzi DeFabo makes 3,000 of these goodies to give away each Saint Joseph's Day.

Ingredients

FOR THE DOUGH:

  • 34 cup granulated sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 cup milk
  • 13 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 5 cups flour

FOR THE FILLING:

  • 2 (15-oz.) cans chickpeas, drained
  • 3 tbsp. honey
  • 1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
  • 12 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 3 tbsp. light brown sugar
  • 3 tbsp. granulated sugar
  • Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
  • 12 tsp. ground cinnamon
  • Vegetable oil

Instructions

Step 1

For the dough: Whisk sugar, eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla together in a large bowl. Add flour and stir until a stiff dough forms. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth, about 5 minutes. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and let rest for 15 minutes.

Step 2

For the filling: Puree chickpeas, honey, lemon juice, and vanilla in a food processor until smooth. Transfer to a medium bowl and add brown sugar, granulated sugar, lemon zest, and cinnamon. Stir until well combined and set aside.

Step 3

Divide dough into 8 equal pieces, flatten each into a rectangle, then cover with plastic wrap. Working with 1 rectangle at a time, feed wide side of dough through smooth cylinders of a hand-crank pasta machine set on widest setting. Decrease setting by 1 notch and feed narrow end of dough through cylinders again. Repeat 2 more times, decreasing setting by 1 notch each time. Lay dough out on a lightly floured surface. Using a 3" round cookie cutter or an inverted sturdy glass, cut out as many rounds as sheet of dough will permit, setting dough scraps aside. Put 1 heaping tsp. of the filling into center of each round, fold dough in half, firmly press edges together to seal, then crimp edges with a fork. Transfer pastries to parchment-lined sheet pans and cover with clean damp dish towels. Repeat rolling, cutting, filling, and crimping process with remaining dough and filling, gathering scraps from each piece of dough together and rerolling them once to make more rounds.

Step 4

Pour oil into a wide pot to a depth of 2" and heat over medium heat until temperature reaches 375° on a candy thermometer. Deep-fry pastries in batches, turning often, until golden brown all over, about 1 1⁄2 minutes per batch. Drain on paper towels. Serve at room temperature.

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