Italian Ascoli Fried Custard | Cremini Fritti all'Ascolana
Updated: Sep 15
Cremini fritti all'Ascolana are the sweet half of the most famous plate in Ascoli Piceno. Everyone outside the Marche knows the stuffed fried olives; almost nobody knows that in Ascoli the olives never arrive alone. Beside them sit small golden cubes of pastry cream cooked firm, chilled overnight, cut, breaded and fried until the shell crackles and the centre turns back into liquid custard.
The technique is the whole recipe. A pastry cream built with enough flour and enough yolk sets hard enough to slice like a soft cheese, holds its shape through the breading, and then melts again in the fryer at exactly the moment the crust is ready. Get the ratio wrong and you either fry a rubbery brick or watch the cream burst into the oil.
What follows is the version used in the pastry shops of the Piceno: a nutmeg scented custard, a double breading, a short fry at a precise temperature, and granulated sugar added while the cubes are still too hot to hold.
Yield: about 30 cubes, 6 servings. Prep: 30 minutes. Cook: 25 minutes. Chill: 8 hours or overnight. Fry: 15 minutes. Total: about 9 hours 30 minutes. Difficulty: intermediate. Course: dessert. Region: Marche, Ascoli Piceno.
The Story
Ascoli Piceno is a travertine city in the far south of the Marche, close enough to Abruzzo to share its mountains and to the Adriatic to share its fish. Its signature dish, the fritto misto all'ascolana, is not one preparation but a composed platter: stuffed olives, lamb cutlets, battered vegetables, and these cremini. The cremino closes the plate, and locally it belongs to the fried course rather than to a separate dessert service.
The dish belongs to the same nineteenth century kitchen that produced the stuffed olive. Both are recorded in Ascoli households from the 1800s, both were made for feast days and carnival, and both enclose something soft inside a fried crust. Where the olive encloses meat, the cremino encloses custard, and the two were fried in the same oil on the same day.
The name simply means little cream. In Ascoli the cubes are cut into squares or diamonds about an inch across, dusted with granulated sugar, and eaten hot from a paper cone. A savoury version made with Parmigiano and no sugar exists too, served with the meat courses, but the sweet one is what the city is known for.
Ingredients
For the custard slab
Whole milk, 4 cups (950 ml)
Granulated sugar, 1 cup (200 g)
All purpose flour, 1 cup (130 g)
Egg yolks, large, 6
Whole eggs, large, 2
Lemon zest, from 1 unwaxed lemon, in wide strips
Vanilla bean, 1, split, or pure vanilla extract, 1 tsp (5 ml)
Freshly grated nutmeg, 1/4 tsp (0.5 g)
Fine sea salt, 1/4 tsp (1.5 g)
Unsalted butter, 1 tbsp (14 g), for the tray
For the breading
All purpose flour, 3/4 cup (95 g)
Whole eggs, large, 3, beaten with a pinch of salt
Fine dry bread crumbs, 2 1/2 cups (250 g)
For frying and finishing
Peanut oil or sunflower oil, about 6 cups (1.4 l), for deep frying
Granulated sugar, 1/3 cup (65 g), for dusting
Ground cinnamon, 1 pinch, optional
Preparation
Infuse the milk
Pour the milk into a heavy saucepan with the lemon zest strips, the split vanilla bean, the nutmeg and the salt. Bring it to the point where the surface trembles and small bubbles ring the edge, then take it off the heat, cover it and infuse for 15 minutes. Do not boil it hard: milk that boils forms a skin and a scorched base, and both end up as specks in the custard. Remove the zest and the pod.
Build the yolk, sugar and flour base
In a large bowl whisk the yolks, the whole eggs and the sugar until the mixture lightens. Sift the flour over the top and whisk until absolutely smooth, with no dry pockets at the bottom of the bowl. The flour is what makes this custard sliceable rather than spoonable, so the full cup must go in and must be fully hydrated.
Temper and combine
Pour about a cup of the warm infused milk into the egg mixture in a thin stream, whisking constantly, until the base is loose and warm. Then pour that back into the saucepan with the rest of the milk, whisking as you go. Tempering is not optional here because six yolks scramble instantly in hot milk, and once they have scrambled no amount of straining will bring the texture back.
Cook the custard until it leaves the pan
Set the saucepan over medium low heat and stir continuously with a wooden spoon or a flat whisk, reaching into the corners of the pan. The mixture will thicken slowly, then suddenly, and then bubble heavily like polenta. Keep going for a further 4 to 5 minutes after the first bubbles break. It is ready when it pulls away from the sides in one mass and a spoon dragged across the base leaves a track that holds.
Spread the slab and chill overnight
Butter a tray or baking dish so the cream sits at a depth of about 3/4 inch (2 cm), roughly 9 by 13 inches (23 by 33 cm) for this quantity. Scrape the hot custard in and spread it level fast, while it is still fluid, using an offset spatula dipped in hot water. Press plastic film directly onto the surface so no skin forms. Cool to room temperature, then refrigerate at least 8 hours. A slab chilled for two hours will slump on the board.
Cut into cubes or diamonds
Turn the set slab out onto a board, or cut it directly in the tray. Use a long thin knife wiped clean between cuts and dipped in hot water if it drags. Cut squares of about 1 1/4 inches (3 cm), or on the diagonal for the traditional diamonds. Keep the pieces cold and covered while you set up the breading.
Bread the cubes twice
Set out three shallow dishes: flour, beaten egg, bread crumbs. Roll each cube in flour and tap off the excess, dip it in egg letting the surplus drain, then press it firmly into the crumbs on all six faces. Return it to the egg and the crumbs a second time. The double coat is the wall that holds molten custard inside a fryer. Refrigerate the finished cubes for at least 30 minutes.
Fry at 340°F in small batches
Heat the oil to 340°F (170°C) and check it with a thermometer rather than by eye. Lower in four or five cubes at a time and fry for about 2 minutes, turning once, until the crust is deep gold. Too cool and the crumbs drink oil while the centre pushes out; too hot and the shell colours before the inside has softened. Lift them out with a spider onto a rack and let the oil recover between batches.
Sugar them while they are hot
Roll the drained cubes in granulated sugar within thirty seconds of leaving the oil, while the surface is still slick enough to hold the crystals. Add the pinch of cinnamon if you want it. Powdered sugar dissolves on a hot fried surface into a damp film, while granulated sugar stays visible and adds crunch.
Plating
These are served hot and immediately. A cremino has a working life of about five minutes: after that the crust softens from the steam trapped inside and the centre thickens back towards a paste. Fry them last and carry them to the table before the sugar has stopped glittering.
In Ascoli the presentation is deliberately plain: a folded paper cone or a small lined tray, five or six cubes per person, nothing on top. Served as part of a fritto misto, the cremini go on the same platter as the stuffed olives, grouped at one side so the sweet pieces stay separate from the savoury ones.
For a restaurant plate, three cubes with a spoonful of unsweetened whipped cream or a few raspberries gives contrast without competing. Avoid chocolate sauce and caramel: both are sweeter than the custard and flatten it.
Professional Technique
The controlling variable is starch concentration. An ordinary pastry cream carries around 2 ounces of flour per quart of milk and sets to a pipeable consistency. This one carries more than twice that, and the extra starch is what lets a chilled slab be cut, handled, breaded and lowered into hot oil without collapsing. The starch granules swell, burst and form a network that traps the liquid, and that network must be fully developed, which is why the custard is cooked several minutes past its first bubble rather than pulled the moment it thickens.
The second technique is the double breading, and it works because the two coats fail at different times. The inner crumb layer absorbs the moisture the custard releases as it warms and goes soft. The egg film between the coats keeps the outer layer dry, and it is the outer layer that crisps and holds the shape. One coat cannot do both jobs, which is why single breaded cremini burst.
The third is the fry temperature, lower than most deep frying. At 340°F (170°C) the crust develops in roughly the same two minutes the interior needs to pass from firm to molten. Push the oil to 375°F (190°C) and the two clocks separate: the outside is finished while the centre is still cold.
Texture and Moisture Control
Three states of the same custard have to be managed. Hot from the pan it is a thick paste that must be spread before it sets. Cold from the refrigerator it is a firm sliceable solid, the only state in which it can be cut and breaded. Hot from the fryer it is liquid again.
Surface moisture is the enemy of the crust. Film pressed directly onto the hot slab stops condensation collecting on top, which would wet the flour coat and stop it gripping. Chilling the breaded cubes for 30 minutes before frying dries the outer crumb layer and is the best insurance against splitting.
After frying, drain on a wire rack and never on absorbent paper, which traps steam against the underside and turns the base soggy within a minute. For the same reason cremini are never covered, stacked deep, or held in a warming drawer.
Professional Mise en Place
Almost all of this recipe happens the day before. On service day only the breading and the frying remain, which makes cremini practical for a dinner with guests.
Equipment and tools
Heavy bottomed saucepan, 3 quart, and a flat whisk or wooden spoon
Shallow tray about 9 by 13 inches (23 by 33 cm) and an offset spatula
Three shallow dishes for flour, egg and crumbs
Deep pot or fryer with at least 3 inches of oil and a frying thermometer
Spider skimmer and a wire draining rack
Prepared ahead
Custard slab cooked, spread, filmed and refrigerated overnight, up to 2 days
Slab cut into cubes and kept covered and cold, up to 12 hours
Cubes fully breaded and refrigerated on a tray, up to 6 hours
Sugar and cinnamon mixed in a wide bowl ready for rolling
Service setup
Oil up to 340°F (170°C) and the thermometer clipped in place
Breaded cubes cold, in batches of five, beside the pot
Draining rack over a tray, and the sugar bowl within arm's reach
Serving plates or paper cones out and ready before the first batch goes in
Chef Tips
Cook the custard longer than feels right. The moment it thickens is not the moment it is done, and undercooked starch gives a slab that weeps in the refrigerator. Keep stirring through the heavy bubbling stage until the mass visibly detaches from the pan wall.
Use fine dry bread crumbs, not panko and not fresh. Panko flakes are too coarse to seal the flat faces of a cube and leave gaps where the custard escapes. Fine crumbs pack into a continuous shell, which is exactly what is needed.
Freeze the breaded cubes for 15 minutes before frying if your kitchen is warm. A very cold centre buys you extra seconds at the end of the fry and makes the difference between a molten interior and a leak.
For the savoury version served with the fritto misto, leave out the sugar and the vanilla, cut the nutmeg in half and stir 3 1/2 oz (100 g) of grated Parmigiano Reggiano into the custard at the end of cooking. Everything else stays the same, including the double breading.
Common Mistakes
Reducing the flour. Recipes that call for pastry cream quantities of flour produce a cream that cannot be cut or fried. The high starch load is the point of the dish, not an error to correct.
Chilling for too short a time. Two or three hours gives a slab that looks set on top and is soft underneath. It will tear on the knife and slump in the crumbs. Overnight is the standard and there is no shortcut.
Breading only once. A single coat cannot both absorb interior moisture and stay crisp, and it will split in the oil. Flour, egg, crumb, then egg and crumb again, every time.
Frying too hot. At 375°F (190°C) the crust is finished long before the centre has softened, and the cube is crunchy outside and cold inside. Hold 340°F (170°C) and let the oil recover between batches.
Crowding the pot. Six or eight cubes at once drop the oil temperature by thirty degrees or more, the crumbs go greasy and the shells weaken. Four or five is the limit for a domestic pot.
Dusting with powdered sugar. It melts into a wet film on contact with the hot crust and disappears. Granulated sugar, applied within seconds of draining, is what the pastry shops of Ascoli use.
Wine Pairing
Offida Pecorino DOCG: The wine of Ascoli Piceno itself, grown on the same hills, and the pairing a local would pour without thinking. Pecorino has unusually firm acidity for a southern Marche white, with a stony finish and a note of yellow apple and sage, and that acidity cuts straight through the fried crumb and the fat of the yolks. Serve it well chilled and dry rather than in a softer modern style.
Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Classico Riserva DOCG: A Marche white with more weight, and the better choice if the cremini close a fritto misto rather than stand alone. The riserva has body enough to meet a rich custard without being swamped, and its characteristic bitter almond finish answers the nutmeg and the toasted crumb directly. The acidity remains high, so it still refreshes between pieces.
Moscato d'Asti DOCG: The classic sweet answer, and it works on temperature and pressure as much as on sugar. Its light spritz scrubs the palate of frying oil in a way no still wine manages, and at around 5 degrees of alcohol it never fights the dessert. The grape and orange blossom aromatics sit beside the lemon zest in the custard rather than over it.
Recioto di Soave DOCG: For a formal dessert service, a dried grape white from Veneto with real concentration and a honeyed almond depth. It is sweeter than the cremini, which is the rule a dessert wine has to respect, and its acidity stays bright enough that the pairing does not turn cloying. Pour small measures, well chilled, in a narrow glass.
Storage & Reheating
The unfried custard slab is the thing worth storing. Filmed and refrigerated it keeps for 2 days and cuts better on the second day. Cut cubes keep covered and cold for 12 hours, breaded cubes for 6 hours. Breaded cubes freeze well: open freeze them on a tray, bag them once solid, keep up to 1 month and fry straight from frozen, adding about 45 seconds.
Fried cremini do not store. They are best for five minutes and acceptable for twenty, after which the crust has softened. Do not refrigerate fried cubes: the cold sets the custard hard inside a limp shell and nothing brings it back.
To revive a batch fried an hour earlier, put them on a rack in an oven at 350°F (175°C) for 5 to 6 minutes, uncovered, and sugar them again as they come out. A microwave is useless: it steams the crust and liquefies the centre at once, and the cube collapses when lifted.
Nutrition
Per serving, based on 6 servings of about 5 cubes each:
Calories: 480 kcal
Total Fat: 24 g
Saturated Fat: 6 g
Trans Fat: 0 g
Unsaturated Fat: 17 g
Cholesterol: 290 mg
Sodium: 260 mg
Total Carbohydrates: 55 g
Fiber: 1 g
Total Sugars: 28 g
Added Sugars: 24 g
Protein: 13 g
Lactose: 7 g
Principal micronutrients: calcium, phosphorus, vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin B12, riboflavin, selenium
These figures are estimates. Fat absorption varies considerably with the oil temperature, and cubes fried below 340°F (170°C) can take up half again as much oil as the figure above assumes.
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