Tuscan Bomboloni alla Crema (Custard Doughnuts)
Big, cloud-soft Italian doughnuts made from a folded yeast dough, fried slow and pale gold, filled with lemon-and-vanilla pastry cream and dusted with powdered sugar, the way Tuscan bakeries and beach carts sell them.
Bomboloni are Italy's filled doughnuts, named for a bomba, a bomb, and most closely tied to Tuscany, where they are sold in pastry shops for breakfast and from carts on the beach. Wikipedia says that in the parts of northern Italy once ruled by Austria, the bombolone is believed to come from the Austrian Krapfen, the Berliner's cousin, and that the Tuscan version is a little different: traditionally without eggs, and often filled from the top so the cream shows rather than through the side. A popular story says the Krapfen reached Tuscany with the Habsburg-Lorraine court in the 18th century; the Italian sources we found present that only as a hypothesis (see Rules). Pastry cream (crema pasticcera) is the classic filling in Italy's best-known recipe, GialloZafferano's.
📖 Origin story: What Are Sufganiyot? Why Jelly Doughnuts Mean Hanukkah →
Why it works the kitchen science
Three folds
Rolling and folding the dough like a letter lines up the gluten and builds thin layers, which is what gives a bombolone its long, cottony pull (GialloZafferano).
Low oil
320°F is cooler than most doughnut recipes, so the thick rounds cook all the way through while the outside stays pale gold instead of dark brown.
Step by step
- Step 1
In a stand mixer with the hook, combine both flours, the sugar and the yeast. With the mixer running, pour in the water in a thin stream, then the eggs a little at a time. When the dough comes together, add the salt and knead on medium 3 to 4 minutes, until it pulls away from the bowl. Add the butter a piece at a time, then knead about 10 minutes more, until smooth.
- Step 2
Shape into a ball, cover and let rise at 79°F to 82°F (an oven with only the light on works) about 3 1/2 hours, until tripled.
- Step 3
On a lightly floured board, roll the dough into a rectangle about 3/4 inch thick. Fold one short side to the middle and the other over it, like a letter. Cover and rest 10 minutes. Repeat the rolling, folding and 10 minute rest twice more (three folds in all).
- Step 4
Roll the dough 1/3 inch thick, cover and rest 10 minutes so it will not shrink, then cut 4-inch rounds. Set each on its own square of parchment, cover and let rise 1 1/2 hours, until clearly thicker.
- Step 5
Meanwhile make the cream: bring the milk, vanilla and lemon zest just to a simmer over low heat. Whisk the yolks, sugar and starch until smooth, strain in the hot milk in three additions while whisking, then return to low heat and stir constantly 4 to 6 minutes, until thick. Scrape into a cold bowl, whisk until it drops to about 120°F, press plastic onto the surface and chill.
- Step 6
Heat the oil in a deep saucepan to 320°F. Slide in one or two bomboloni on their paper, peel the paper away, and fry about 4 minutes, spooning hot oil over the tops and turning them gently halfway, until evenly golden. Drain on paper towels.
- Step 7
While they are warm, pipe the cream into each through a narrow plain tip until full, dust with powdered sugar and serve.
Tuscan Bomboloni alla Crema (Custard Doughnuts)
Serves 10 (one bombolone each) · 10 large bomboloni · 6 hr 55 min total
Dough
- 2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour
- 2 cups (250 g) bread flour
- 3 tbsp plus 1 tsp (40 g) sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp instant yeast (or 15 g fresh yeast)
- 1/2 cup plus 1 1/2 tbsp (140 g) water
- 2 extra-large eggs (about 120 g), beaten
- 1 tsp (6 g) salt
- 3 tbsp (40 g) butter, very soft
Pastry cream
- 1 1/3 cups whole milk
- 1/2 vanilla bean, split, or 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 strips lemon zest (yellow part only)
- 5 large egg yolks
- 7 tbsp (87 g) sugar
- 3 1/2 tbsp (27 g) cornstarch or rice starch
Frying and finishing
- About 1 quart seed oil (sunflower or peanut)
- Powdered sugar, for dusting
Method
- In a stand mixer with the hook, combine both flours, the sugar and the yeast. With the mixer running, pour in the water in a thin stream, then the eggs a little at a time. When the dough comes together, add the salt and knead on medium 3 to 4 minutes, until it pulls away from the bowl. Add the butter a piece at a time, then knead about 10 minutes more, until smooth.
- Shape into a ball, cover and let rise at 79°F to 82°F (an oven with only the light on works) about 3 1/2 hours, until tripled.
- On a lightly floured board, roll the dough into a rectangle about 3/4 inch thick. Fold one short side to the middle and the other over it, like a letter. Cover and rest 10 minutes. Repeat the rolling, folding and 10 minute rest twice more (three folds in all).
- Roll the dough 1/3 inch thick, cover and rest 10 minutes so it will not shrink, then cut 4-inch rounds. Set each on its own square of parchment, cover and let rise 1 1/2 hours, until clearly thicker.
- Meanwhile make the cream: bring the milk, vanilla and lemon zest just to a simmer over low heat. Whisk the yolks, sugar and starch until smooth, strain in the hot milk in three additions while whisking, then return to low heat and stir constantly 4 to 6 minutes, until thick. Scrape into a cold bowl, whisk until it drops to about 120°F, press plastic onto the surface and chill.
- Heat the oil in a deep saucepan to 320°F. Slide in one or two bomboloni on their paper, peel the paper away, and fry about 4 minutes, spooning hot oil over the tops and turning them gently halfway, until evenly golden. Drain on paper towels.
- While they are warm, pipe the cream into each through a narrow plain tip until full, dust with powdered sugar and serve.
Adapted from GialloZafferano, "Bomboloni" (10 pieces), with its "Crema pasticcera" scaled to the 500 g of cream the bomboloni need: and. We use all-purpose flour for the Italian 00 and bread flour for Manitoba, swap the 15 g of fresh yeast for 1 1/2 tsp instant yeast (our conversion), convert 160°C to 320°F and use cornstarch, which GialloZafferano allows, in place of rice starch. GialloZafferano's dough contains eggs; Wikipedia says traditional Tuscan bomboloni do not. ricette.giallozafferano.it. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
Tips
- Fry each bombolone on its own square of parchment so you never squash it lifting it.
- GialloZafferano's tip: let the dough scraps rise a few minutes, fry them as bite-size nuggets and roll them in sugar.
- Plain (unfilled) bomboloni keep a day or two covered; filled ones go in the refrigerator.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- Bomboloni came from the Austrian Krapfen. Disputed: Wikipedia says this is believed in the formerly Austrian north (Trentino, Veneto, Friuli), and Italian food sites suggest the Habsburg-Lorraine court brought Krapfen to Tuscany in the 18th century, but they present it as a hypothesis ("si ipotizza"), and we found no primary source.
- Tuscan bomboloni have no eggs. Disputed: Wikipedia says so; GialloZafferano's widely used recipe has two eggs.
- The cream goes in through the top. Folklore: Wikipedia says Tuscan bomboloni are often filled from the top, but GialloZafferano pipes them like any filled doughnut.
- Pastry cream is the only true filling. Folklore: GialloZafferano calls it the classic, and jam and chocolate are common too.
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