Baking with the Best!

This week’s cooking lesson took me to the kitchen of a restaurant called Little Doms, a place my friends and I have been dying to try for ages! We’ve been dying to try it because we’re longtime fans of Little Dom’s papa, a place called Dominick’s where our group has celebrated multiple birthdays, promotions, and the occasional impromptu Friday night dinner. For this reason, I was so excited to bake with Ann Kirk the masterful pastry chef for both restaurants… after all, i’ve been indulging in her desserts for years! Ann sent over a list of her desserts and asked me to choose what I’d like to make… my eyes went directly to the Ricotta Fritters. Cheese? Check. Fried Dough? Check. And when I found out this recipe was adapted from one Ann learned while under the tutelage of Nancy Silverton (another one of my foodie heros!) it was a done deal… I’m not made of stone people!

Flour Power

Here’s What You’ll Need to Pull Off These Little Balls of Heaven

2 Lbs of Dry Ricotta Cheese – it has to be dry, but if you cant find that at the store you can dry it out yourself like this

3 Cups Pastry Flour – get pastry flour, don’t try and sub it out, it wont be the same

1/2 Cup + 2 Tbsp Sugar

2 Tbsp Baking powder

2 Tsp Nutmeg

9 Large Eggs – that isn’t a typo, it’s 9 Large Eggs!

1/2 Cup Honey

4 Tbsp Vanilla Extract

You’ll also need something to fries these in. If you don’t have a deep fryer, a large pot with vegetable oil will work too

Sifter

First sift the flour, 1/2 cup of sugar, baking powder and nutmeg into a bowl. Once all dry ingredients are added, mix well. The sifting ensures that everything will be very fine, and give you a lighter dough. I loved this tip from Ann, I sift everything now and it really does make a difference!

Well, well, well

Now use a spatula to make a little well in the center of you dry ingredients.

Oh, Honey

9 Eggs

Now add eggs, honey and vanilla extract into the well and whisk starting in the center. Slowly pull in dry ingredients until all is combined.

Once combined, cover with plastic wrap and let sit in refrigerator for at least an hour before frying.

Once mixture is ready, heat your fryer (or your pot of oil) to 350 degrees (a candy thermometer can tell you when it’s ready) and then use and ice cream scoop to get spoonfuls to gingerly drop in your oil.

It’s best to fry in small batches because every time you add dough to your oil it lowers the temperature.

Once the fritters are golden brown remove from the fryer and place on a paper towel to soak up excess oil. While still hot roll the fritter is sugar or cinnamon sugar.

These are so amazing, but made even better when Ann serves them up with some fruit compote or, on the day I was there, a little chocolate whip cream!

The honest truth is, I was OBSESSED with these fritters. So much in fact that I made a reservation for Dominick’s the next night so my husband could try them too! They’re like the most delicious donut you’ve ever had and you must visit the restaurant or make them at home because you’ll die!

Do you see the big chunks of ricotta in there?! These fritters might be my perfect dessert!