Take your cooking cues from the garden and bring the outdoors inside with this delicious jam bombolini recipe, that not only delights the senses, but tastes deliciously sweet, too.

Recipes Rosa Matto | Styling Natalie Homan | Photographs Brendan Homan

Bomboloni
serves 9

100ml lukewarm milk
2 tsp active dry yeast
2 tbsp caster sugar
3 tbsp sunflower oil
1 large egg
½ tsp vanilla essence
275g 00 flour
1 pinch salt
sunflower oil, extra for frying

In the bowl of a mixer with the dough hook attached, add milk, yeast, sugar, sunflower oil, egg, and vanilla and whisk to combine.

Slowly add flour and a pinch of salt and mix gently until it comes together and becomes smooth and elastic.

Remove and knead dough a few times to form into a ball, then place it in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover bowl and allow to double over two hours or until doubled in bulk.

Punch the dough down and knead a few times. Cut into 9 pieces of approximately 58g each. Roll each piece into a ball and place them on a parchment-paper-lined cookie sheet. Lightly flatten with your fingers, cover and let them rise again for another hour.

In a medium-sized pot add about 8cm sunflower oil, and heat it to 170C, try to keep it as close to this temperature as possible while frying. Fry the bomboloni, turning a couple of times, for about 2 to 3 minutes on each side.

Remove the fried bomboloni with a slotted spoon to a paper-towel-lined plate. Let them cool a little then with the end of a wooden spoon make an indentation at the side of the bomboloni and twist it around to open up some space. Fill that space with strawberry, rose and pink peppercorn jam.

Glaze with pink icing sugar and top with crystallised rose petals.

The bomboloni are best eaten on the day but will keep for one or two days.

 

for strawberry, rose and pink peppercorn jam
makes 2 cups

500g fresh strawberries
500g jam sugar (caster sugar with added pectin, available in supermarkets)
1 lemon, juiced
4 rose geranium leaves (or 1 tsp of rosewater)
12 pink peppercorns

Hull strawberries and put into your pan together with the lemon juice and rose geranium leaves (or 1 tsp of rosewater) and pink peppercorns. Heat for 5 minutes until strawberries have released their juices.

Add jam sugar and bring to the boil. Allow to continue cooking for 10 minutes until the setting point is reached. (You can judge the setting point by putting a saucer in your freezer before making the jam.  Spoon some of the jam onto the cold saucer and leave to cool. If the surface of the jam puckers when you push it with your finger, it is ready. If not, continue boiling and try again after a few more minutes).

Pour into a sterilised jar.

 

for the icing
150g icing sugar
1 tsp natural essence of rosewater
a few drops pink food colouring

Mix ingredients with a spoon until smooth and thick. Dip the top of each bomboloni into the icing and set on a rack over a tray. Allow to dry.

 

for crystallised rose petals
1 large egg white
1 tsp water

36 pesticide-free edible flowers, such as rose petals or pansies
caster sugar, for sprinkling

Whisk egg white with water in a small bowl. Working with 1 petal at a time and holding it with tweezers, brush egg wash over entire surface of petal using a small paintbrush. Sprinkle with sugar. Transfer to a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Let stand at room temperature for several hours or even overnight. Sugared petals can be stored in single layers in airtight containers at room temperature for at least a month.

 

 

This article first appeared in the May 2024 issue of SALIFE magazine.