Cenci are a typical Tuscan dessert we make during Carnival, basically they are aromatized fried dough rags (cenci means rags in Tuscany).
They are crunchy and sweet, thanks to the powder sugar topping, and instantly bring back my child memories (it looks like it does the same to my daughters 😁).
This is a typical Italian dessert that you can find also in other Italian regions with different names (frappe, chiacchiere…), but it seems like their first iteration comes from Tuscany as it was first documented in 1891 by Pellegrino Artusi in his milestone of the Italian cuisine https://www.pellegrinoartusi.it/595-cenci/
Ingredients
- Flour 300 gr
- Butter 50 gr
- 2 eggs
- 2 tablespoons of Marsala
- 2 tablespoons of sugar
- A pinch of salt
Directions
- Make a “fountain” with the flour on a pastry board, and in the middle place the butter which you have softened a little, the 2 eggs, the 2 tablespoons of liqueur, 2 tablespoons of sugar, and a pinch of salt.
- Work the dough with your hands until you obtain a fairly firm dough (if necessary add more flour) and then, once you have made a ball, leave it to rest covered with a napkin in a cool place for about an hour.
- Then roll out the pastry quite thinly with a rolling pin (or with a 5mm thick pasta machine!), cut them into diamonds, and fry the cenci in boiling oil (use a frying pan and immerse them 7-8 at a time so as not to burn them).
- Drain them, sprinkle them with vanilla sugar, and serve hot.
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