ISO One Sweet Zeppole

Please help!
Does anybody know a bakery, preferably Italian, that would have Zeppoles, in Niles/Skokie/Lincolnwood (or Chicago, near these suburbs)? My mother just reminded me about this, and I simply must have my annual dose on Monday (3/19). I've been to Oak Mill and want to try something different, but I don't have time to get to Little Italy.

Thanks all!

Someone on another forum mentioned that Bennison's has them this week, possibly in conjunction with the upcoming feast of St. Joseph.

Bennison's Bakery
1000 Davis
Evanston, IL 60201
847 328 9434

Damato's on Grand make some incredible Zeppoles, but only on the weekends...!!!

D'Amato's Bakery
1124 W. Grand Ave., Chicago
Tel: (312) 733-5456

Here I am again, bugging everyone about zeppoles. They are incredibly hard to find. I tried Bennison's last year and they were mighty good, but are there any other places nearby that I should try? Remember, it's a Wednesday, so Niles/Lincolnwood/Skokie/Evanston etc. is best for a trip at lunch or after work.

Your search shoud begin and end at GNR Winner Pasticceria Natalina

What about Pasticceria Natalina?

Edit: Curse you, Steve, and your nimble fingers!

Joe Caputo's had them during the holidays, so maybe they will have them again now. Their original location is in Des Plaines.

Strictly speaking as a South Sider.. I know that Weber's Bakery on Archer has had them years past.

They also have Hot Cross Buns on Ash Wednesday. If you make it down there I'd also suggest picking up a loaf of the Sauerkraut Rye Bread it's pretty good as well.


Weber Bakery
7055 W. Archer Ave.
Chicago, IL 60638
773-586-1234

Hi,

I think the search is far easier around St. Joseph's Day on March 19th. ARound this time I have even found them at Jewel, but otherwise I almost never see them at other times.

Cookie Monster at Delightful Pastries will make them, but I had the sense it is was seasonable or by special order. Whatever she does it will be a very good custard and real whipped cream, which you cannot say happens everwhere else you go. In fact you can choose from two custards: regular and what she refers to as boozy.

Regards,

You're right, I'm early, so I changed the title of the post.

Delightful Pastries will make them, but they're a special order. Besides, I'll be back soon to stuff myself on other things.

Available now at the Oak Park Bakery



904 S Oak Park Ave
Oak Park, IL 60304
(708) 383-1712
(Closed Sunday and Monday)

Ann Fisher wrote:Available now at the Oak Park Bakery

Terrific picture, delicious, made me want to bite the screen.

G Wiv wrote:Terrific picture, delicious, made me want to bite the screen.

Thanks! It was that great natural light on the dashboard of the Toyota

Better yet, it tasted every bit as good as it looks. Lots of wonderful custard, light pastry, fresh strawberry, nothing too sweet, all in perfect balance. The other variation they had available this afternoon had a maraschino cherry on top. It didn't draw me in in the same way though I suppose if I hadn't just come from lunch at Priscilla's, I would have been a better foot soldier and bought them both so I could provide a more comprehensive buying guide.

Sicilian Bakery at 4632 N Cumberland makes a very fine zeppole. [As does Palermo Bakery at 3317 N Harlem, but I think Sicilian on Cumberland has the edge on this one.]

Giovanna

I went to Pasticceria Natalina today to pick up my zeppoles, and lo, there were none to be had! They were casually rolling out the dough and said they'd be done in another 40 minutes! I was so disappointed. Theirs are slightly different; it seemed they were just round balls of fried dough either stuffed with custard and cherries or rolled in cinnamon sugar. I would have loved to try the cherry custard, but I was on my lunch break and couldn't wait. Since I live in Niles, driving back at 5pm wasn't really an option unless I wanted to be driving in traffic for 2 hours. Next year, dammit, I'm calling ahead.

So I wandered down to the Swedish Bakery to see if they had any, and lo, there was one type: custard/whipped cream blend in the zeppole shape I remember from years past (similar to the one in the photo above). I have yet to try it, but I will post a review when I do. It looks quite a bit like the one in the photo, but imagine the donut split in half and slightly darker with a cherry instead of a strawberry.

I also passed Bon Bon, a lovely little high-end (read: expensive) chocolate shop, and I had to stop in...
I'll have to write a post about this place too, when I feast on my Buddha truffle.

If anyone has had some zeppoles today, please tell us about 'em! If you still haven't stopped off to get some, so far Reuters and Bennisons have the best, in my opinion. Oven Fresh is pretty good but uses the pie filling stuff.

Ferrara's on Taylor (2210 W. Taylor St) has them this week - I didn't try one when I was in there yesterday in preference to their pignolatti, which are my favorites.

Athena wrote:Ferrara's on Taylor (2210 W. Taylor St) has them this week - I didn't try one when I was in there yesterday in preference to their pignolatti, which are my favorites.

Is that the same as pignoli, those tasty little pine-nut encrusted cookies?

I have no clue about the exact Italian, but I thought the nuts were pignoli? Is it also used for the cookies? The Ferrara pignolatti are small amareti-like cookies with a sort of marzipanish moist texture, rolled in the pignoli nuts.

Athena wrote:I have no clue about the exact Italian, but I thought the nuts were pignoli? Is it also used for the cookies? The Ferrara pignolatti are small amareti-like cookies with a sort of marzipanish moist texture, rolled in the pignoli nuts.

That sounds like them. Maybe the name was shortened to pignoli for us students. I just remember them being crispy around the edges, chewy in the middle, and nutty and tasty all around. I have some leftover pine nuts, so I'll just have to bake some and take their picture (as soon as I figure out this digital camera)...

So the Swedish Bakery zeppole was a fine treat indeed, and although I was really looking forward to some fresh strawberries in the filling, it was a creamy, fattening, rather messy delight. The pastry was fried just long enough to taste the caramelization, and the custard was neither too rich nor too sugary. They were also a wee bit smaller than I remember, or maybe stouter due to less filling, which was nice, since I didn't feel over-stuffed. Next year maybe I can plan ahead and not only pick up a few at P.N., but take off early from work and get to Oak Park Bakery. Doesn't that picture look great?

Giovanna wrote:Sicilian Bakery at 4632 N Cumberland makes a very fine zeppole.

They sure do! And pretty too. I made a quick run there this morning to pick up breakfast. They had two kinds: cannoli and custard. I picked up one of each for my parents and cannoli for me. The donut itself was so light and airy I told myself it was fat free for sure, but the creamy, just-sweet-enough, filled-to-the-brim cannoli cream was plenty naughty. I tried to savor it as best I could, but after it was gone I wished I had taken slower bites. And that I had two.

It was very quiet in there, considering the lines in Pticek's on Fat Tuesday at 5am. The zeppole is an underrated pastry. Tell your friends!

It's been almost three years; thought I'd update. Any new suggestions for Italian bakeries on the north/northwest side/north shore?

Thanks!

I have seen them recently at the bakery in Shop and Save located at Archer and Central. I know they have a store in Niles.

Can't help you with your search, but this jumped out at me and brought forth a memory from decades past:

Ann Fisher wrote:

G Wiv wrote:Terrific picture, delicious, made me want to bite the screen.

Thanks! It was that great natural light on the dashboard of the Toyota

A friend and I had driven to an event, and one of us had accidentally left a fresh peach in a cupholder in the car. We had a good time at the mid-summer fair despite the very hot weather, and returned hours later to a car that, when we opened the door, smelled absolutely heavenly due to the well-baked fruit within. He said there should be a new dessert named for our discovery, perhaps "Peaches Corolla." (And then, when a beautiful red-orange sunset lit up the sky, we had the Crayola color to go with the name!)

I went on my zeppole run this morning and tried two new things: sfinci from Palermo and a Cuddura cu l'ova from Il Giardino. I was heading to Reuter's, too, but ran out of time.

The sfinci was incredible. It was a light, airy thing, shaped vaguely like a horn, stuffed to the gills with cannoli filling and topped with candied orange peel. It was luscious and massive compared to the little ones you get at the Taste of Melrose. Plus, those are like little doughnuts while this was a flaky pastry. I just realized that my computer has a camera dealie at the top. From this point forward, I no longer have an excuse to eat at work and not take photos.

The cuddura was interesting, but I'm not sure I'd ever get it again. In the store, it looked like bread. It was next to another type of bread, so I assumed it was. It was a disc, roughly 4" across, with a blue hard-boiled egg in the center, held in place by four strips of dough. It was adorable. I'd seen tiny loaves of bread with colored eggs embedded in them online, but never in person, so I bought one. It turned out the dough was a little more like a cookie, but not terribly sweet; it was sweet like a biscuit you'd use for shortcake, but crumbly, like a sugar cookie. The area around the egg was moister and chewy while the rest was crisper. The egg was a real pain in the ass to peel, but somehow, perfectly cooked despite having been boiled, colored, and baked.

Now that I'm full of bread and sugar, I'm going to attempt napping under my desk.

Hi there! Where are the best zeppoles in the city?

We have enjoyed them at Antico in Bucktown.