After more than 50 days in lockdown I’m now able to move a bit more freely around my home, even if I’m still very careful. I’ve been to my usual elderflowers spot and there was still plenty of flowers to pick. It’s kind of a miracle after all the rain and wind we had this past few weeks. I always wanted to make elderflowers fritters but to be honest I’m usually not a huge fan of fritters and deep fried food in general. I find it too heavy and greasy, ironic I know for a French girl who grew up eating way too much salted butter and heavy cream.
This year I search into different fritters recipes to try to find one I would like, and I stumble upon this classic French one. They're called « pets de nonne » which can be translate by « nun’s fart » (I’m not kidding). As you can see French people live up to their very classy reputation. There is several rumors around the origin of the name, the most famous one said it’s because those fritters are light and delicate like a nun’s fart is supposed to be ( don’t ask me how they knew that). If you have already ate and liked the French « chouquettes » that you can buy in every French bakery, you will love those fritters who have a very similar taste since they made from chou pastry dough like the « chouquettes » are.
I developed the recipe from one of those old cardboard printed recipes my mom gave me long time ago, most of the recipes in that box are 70/80’s style and they aged awfully but they are also some treasures in there, like this one. While I was looking at those recipes with way too much canned pineapple and jellied meat, I ask myself : Will our kids or grandkids look at our avocados toast, Buddha bowl and other recent food trends with the same perplexity ? It would be funny right ?
Usually the elderflowers are fried with their stems on, but I read in a foraging book that the greens part and stem of the elder plant can be difficult to digest and possibly toxic if you ate a lot so I rather only cook with the flowers, even if it's take longer to remove all the green parts. You maybe notice that the blog is all shiny and new (now you have the song in mind right ? ) my old one was made awfully and had so many problems and I was so tired of it. I had some free times during the lockdown so I decided to fix it.It’s still not perfect but I’m quite happy with the result and now I don't have any excuses to not post in here more often, so stay stunned!
Elderflowers pets de nonne
Ingrédients
- 50 g Unsalted butter
- 125 ml water
- 2 tbsp Sugar
- 1 Pinch Salt
- 75 g Flour
- 2 Eggs
- 5 Elderflower Head Stems and greens parts removed
- ¼ tsp Organic lemon zest (optional)
Instructions
- Put the butter cut in pieces, the water, the sugar and the salt in a heavy bottom saucepan on medium/low heat. The butter has to melt but be careful that your mixture does not boil. Once the butter is completely melted pour all the flour in the saucepan and mix vigorously until it forms a soft ball who comes off the edges of your pan. Remove your dough from the fire.
- Away from the fire, add your eggs one by one. Your dough is going to look a bit lumpy at first but don't be afraid and continue to mix vigorously your dough until it looks homogeneous. Once the first egg is completely incorporate to the dough, do the same with the second one.
- Add the elderflowers and lemon zest to your dough and gently mix them in.
- Heat a heavy bottom saucepan fill with neutral oil on medium heat. (Be careful, if your oil is too hot the fritters will not have the time to cook at heart and to rise.)
- Once your oil is hot enough, throw little amounts of dough in it ( about half a teaspoon) and let them cook a few minutes. The fritters are ready when they're golden brown and float on top of your oil. Put your cooked fritters on a plate filled with paper towel to absorb the oil excess.
- Sprinkle with powdered sugar at the very end, and eat them warm!
Notes
English (UK) 
Français
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