These small irregular fried balls of yeast dough make me feel the Christmas atmosphere. In my hometown Ostuni, and all-around Apulia, people enjoy eating Pettole during the whole Christmas period, until the 6th of January.

Even now that I’m living in Denmark I want my family to feel the same joyful atmosphere, by preparing the Pettole. We love to eat them simply with a dash of salt but you could make them more tasty stuffing them with anchovies. Pettole can easily be made sweet by dipping in honey orVincotto, or just with a sprinkle of sugar.

SERVINGS: 50 – 60
Preparation + Frying Time: 20 min + 30 min		Rising Time: 3 h
TOTAL TIME: 3h 50 min

Dissolve the yeast in half of the warm water (about 200 ml).
Pour the flour, the sugar, the water with dissolved yeast and the remaining water in a big bowl and start to knead, preferably with a stand mixer. Add salt and continue to knead until obtaining a smooth dough (without lumps), elastic and sticky. You will see bubbles appear on the surface, that is the sign that the dough is ready.
Place a cloth over the bowl and let rise until the mixture has almost tripled its volume (about 3 hours). Keep the dough in the oven with the light on or in a warm place.
Heat the rice oil or peanut oil in a deep frying pan. The oil temperature cannot be higher than 170 ºC. To check if the oil is ready for frying, drop a small piece of dough into the oil. If it comes back to the top and starts bubbling all around then the oil temperature is perfect to fry.
To spoon up the pettole you can use 2 tablespoons, or your hands (see the video below).