The Carnival fritters are fried desserts, soft batter balls enriched with raisins and pine nuts or with apples, and covered with powdered sugar. The Carnival fritters can be done in numerous variations: there are fritters filled with custard cream, zabaglione cream or with chocolate. This recipe presents a simple batter with raisins, which allows the fritters to remain soft and not to absorb oil.
Soak the raisins in a bowl with water and a tablespoon of rum. Melt the yeast in a glass of warm milk and, in a bowl, pour the flour, egg, sugar, vanillin and grated lemon peel (1) and mix the ingredients by hand or with the help of a whisk. Add the glass of warm milk (2) in which you have dissolved the yeast and continue to mix until you create a smooth batter. Squeeze the raisins and add to the batter (3).
Mix the raisins with the batter (4) and let the batter rise for at least 2 hours, covering the bowl with the transparent film. Heat the oil in a pan with high sides, take small amounts of dough with the help of a spoon and let it slip into the boiling oil, frying a few fritters at a time (5). When the fritters are swollen and golden on both sides, collect them with the skimmer, drain them from the oil and let them dry on a plate covered with paper towels (6). Sprinkle your carnival fritters with powdered sugar and serve them.
Be careful not to pour too much dough into the oil because the fritters could remain raw in the center.
If you prefer, you can use granulated sugar instead of powdered sugar.
If you prefer, you can add pine nuts and apples cut into small pieces.