Chiacchiere are a traditional Italian sweet popular throughout carnival season. This is a simple and delicious recipe, made with a few simple ingredients.

You can bake chiacchiere in the oven, or deep-fry them.

chiacchiere

What are chiacchiere?

deep-fried chiacchiere
chiacchiere

Chiacchiere are the most popular carnival sweet in Italy. They are popular from north to south, and every grandmother (and myself) will definitely make a whole batch for the family.

The traditional recipe for chiacchiere is deep-fried. Here I’ll show you how to make them deep-fried and oven-baked. Our recipe does not contain eggs or butter.

oven baked italian chiacchiere
Oven baked chiacchiere

Ingredients & Substitutions

  • Flour: cake flour is the best for this recipe.
  • Sugar: regular white sugar is best.
  • Salt: just a pinch, to bring flavours together.
  • Lemon zest: best if from an organic lemon. You can also use orange zest.
  • White wine: it makes the chiacchiere light, crips, and full of little bubbles.
  • Water: just plain tap water.
  • Oil: sunflower seed oil or any other neutral vegetable oil.
  • Frying oil: if you deep-fry them.
  • Powdered sugar: to sprinkle on top.
chiacchiere ingredients

Equipment

You’ll need a rolling pin or a pasta machine to roll out the dough. Also, usually chiacchiere are cut with a pasta cutter. If you don’t have that, you can use a sharp knife instead, or a pizza cutter.

How to make chiacchiere?

Start with the dough

To make chiacchiere, mix together 2½ tablespoons (30 grams) sugar, ¼ cups (60 grams) water, 3 tablespoons (40 grams) white wine, 2½ tablespoons (30 grams) sunflower oil and the grated zest of a lemon or of an orange.

liquid ingredients for chiacchiere

Mix together for a few seconds, then add 1⅔ cups (250 grams) of cake flour, and a pinch of salt

Combine all the ingredients together, then transfer the mixture onto a work surface and knead for 5 minutes till you have a compact and springy dough. Shape it into a ball, then let rest for about an hour covered under a bowl, or a kitchen cloth. 

Resting is key here to allow the gluten to relax. This way it’ll be easy to roll out the dough.

After an hour you can roll out the dough either with a pasta machine, starting from the larger setting and going down to the thinnest, or with a rolling pin. 

Dust your worktop with flour, then roll out as thin as you can, remembering to fold the dough on itself two to three times. 

Folding helps the dough get light and full of bubbles when we cook it later on.

Keep rolling out the dough as thinly as you can. The shape is not important. Then when you have a very thin dough, almost transparent, you can cut it. 

The most common shape you’ll find here in Italy is rectangular with two openings in the centre. 

But shape is not super important when it comes to angel wings, you can really get creative and do this with kids, letting them cut the dough in the weirdest shapes. 

Once cut you can place the shapes on a clean kitchen cloth, and stack more clothes on top of each other to save space in your kitchen.

chiacchiere raw on a kitchen cloth

Oven baked chiacchiere

Then to cook chiacchiere in the oven, arrange the pieces onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper, and bake in a preheated oven at 350F or 180C for about 8 minutes. They are light and crunchy this way.

chiacchiere on a baking tray

Then arrange them onto a serving platter in layers, and dust them with powdered sugar, adding more layers till you run out of chiacchiere.

oven baked italian chiacchiere
oven baked chiacchiere

Deep-fried chiacchiere

To deep fry them, bring the frying oil to 340F or 170C and fry for about 1 minute each, turning them around after 30 to 40 seconds. 

Chiacchiere should be very light, crispy and be full of bubbles. As you can see here they bubble up perfectly because we folded the dough a few times, and because we rolled it very thinly.

frying the chiacchiere

Then when you take them out of the oil, they should be lightly golden. Do not overcook them or they’ll absorb too much oil. Let the oil drip, then arrange them onto a cooling rack lined with kitchen paper, and keep frying.

Deep frying takes a bit of practice, but if you follow all our tips you’ll master it in no time. Most important of all is the oil temperature!

deep-fried chiacchiere on a cooling rack

Then as your cooling rack fills up, you can transfer some of the angel wings onto a serving platter, and arrange them in layers. 

Dust each layer with powdered sugar, and repeat, then all you are left to do is serve the to your friends and family that will be absolutely blown away to know that these little things are 100% plant based.

deep-fried chiacchiere

Tips

  • Let the dough rest or you won’t be able to roll it out thin.
  • Roll the dough very thin: chiacchiere must be thin and crispy. For this to happen the dough needs to be rolled very thin. If you put your hand behind the rolled dough, you should be able to see your hand.
  • Fold while rolling: folding and layering the dough makes it even crispier and full of bubbles. We tested with folding and without folding and we strongly recommend to fold.
  • Which shape? You can get creative with the shape. Stripes, squares, knots and ribbons, it doesn’t matter. In Italy every family uses a different shape.

Questions & Answers

Who invented chiacchiere?

Chiacchiere come from an ancient roman dessert called fricitilia. Already back during Roman times, this dish was made around February to celebrate Saturnali, a Roman holiday similar to modern carnival.

What are other names for chiacchiere?

Each region in Italy has its own name for chiacchiere. Bugie, cenci, cioffe, cresciole, crostoli, cunchielli, fiocchetti, frappe, frappole, galani, galarane, gale, gasse, guanti, intrigoni, lattughe, maraviglias, sfrappe, sfrappole, sossole, sprelle, stracci, and many others.

chiacchiere
chiacchiere

Storage

Our vegan Italian chiacchiere are best eaten on the same day for best crunch. however, you can store them in a plastic bag, air tight, for up to 3 days.

Variations

Despite the many different names, Italian chiacchiere are actually quite similar all around Italy. However, there are some difference and variations, mainly on:

Type of liqueur used: depending on the regions Italians use different types of liqueur in their chiacchiere. A good white wine, grappa, anice liqueur, rum, alchermes, vinsanto, cognac, and even marsala and limoncello are a popular choice.

Shape: it doesn’t really matter! Squares, rectangles, ribbons, long thin stripes, squares with cuts in the middle, with rose shape. Chiacchiere can really take any shape you want to give them.

chiacchiere

Topping: the most popular way to serve chiacchiere is with powdered sugar on top. Other popular ways are drizzled with Alchermes, a red liqueur, or drizzled with honey (agave syrup for vegan alternative) and orange or lemon zest.

chiacchiere

Chiacchiere – Italian Carnival Sweets

By: Nico Pallotta
4.92 from 12 votes
Chiacchiere are a traditional Italian sweet popular throughout carnival season. This is a simple and delicious recipe, made with a few simple ingredients.
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Resting Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Servings: 40 pieces
Course: Dessert, Snack
Cuisine: Italian

Equipment

  • Pasta cutter
  • Rolling pin (or pasta machine)

Ingredients

  • 1⅔ cups cake flour
  • tablespoons sugar
  • ¼ cups water
  • 3 tablespoons white wine or orange juice
  • tablespoons oil canola, sunflower seed, or other
  • 1 lemon grated zest
  • 1 pinch salt

Instructions 

  • To a bowl add sugar, water, oil, white wine, lemon zest and mix together with a spatula. Now add in the flour and a pinch of salt and mix till you get a dough ball.
  • Transfer to a worktop and knead with your hands for 5 minutes until you get a smooth dough ball. Let rest at room temperature for 1 hour, covered with a cloth.
  • Cut the dough into two pieces, then roll it out very thinly. You should almost be able to see through the dough. You can use a rolling pin or a pasta machine.
    While you roll it out, fold it on its own 3 to 5 times. This will make the chiacchiere lighter, crispier and full of bubbles.
  • With a pasta cutter, cut stripes of dough that are about 4 inches long and 1½ inches wide (10 x 3 cm).
    Alternatively you can do whatever shape you like. See our pictures to get inspired.
  • Oven baked: cook in the oven for 8 minutes at 360F or 180C.
    Deep-fry: fry in oil for 30 seconds on each side. Oil temperature at 340F or 170C. Set aside on a tray with kitchen paper.
  • Arrange on a serving platter and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Nutrition

Calories: 31kcal, Carbohydrates: 5g, Protein: 1g, Fat: 1g, Saturated Fat: 1g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g, Monounsaturated Fat: 1g, Trans Fat: 1g, Potassium: 10mg, Dietary Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 1g, Vitamin A: 1IU, Vitamin B6: 1mg, Vitamin C: 1mg, Vitamin E: 1mg, Vitamin K: 1µg, Calcium: 2mg, Folate: 2µg, Iron: 1mg, Manganese: 1mg, Magnesium: 2mg, Zinc: 1mg
Tried this recipe? Leave a comment below or mention @theplantbasedschool on Instagram. We are also on Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and TikTok.

If you liked this recipe, you might also like:


Nico and Louise in the kitchen

Hi! We are Nico & Louise

Welcome to The Plant-Based School, a food blog with easy, tasty, and wholesome recipes.

Our aim is to help you and your family eat more veggies through delicious recipes with simple ingredients.

Easy right?

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




10 Comments

  1. 5 stars
    I can’t believe how delicious these were! I’ve always made them the traditional way, and I was very hesitant to try a vegan version for my kids because they do take some time, but this recipe blew us all away! Everyone, including non vegans, said they were the best chiacchiere (Crostui in Friuli) they’ve ever eaten.
    I used grappa instead of wine, and orange zest instead of lemon, otherwise followed your recipe exactly. Thank you so much for this perfect recipe. It will definitely replace my old one.
    (Also, this didn’t make a bushel full so it was much quicker than I expected!)

    1. Wonderful, Linda! Oh, I’m so happy you tried these. Grappa and orange zest sound delicious, I also love the orange zest in the Italian carnival sweets 🎉

      Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment, it means a lot to us. Have a great rest of your week. Kindest,

      Louise

    1. Hi Alice, thanks so much for commenting and for the tip. I’m sure a lot of people will benefit from this link and read reviews before purchasing. Have a wonderful day. Cheers, Nico

  2. 5 stars
    Hello Chef Nico,
    Thank you so very much for sharing this wonderful recipe! In my family, we call these “guandi.” I love that you can bake them instead of frying! It was a very easy recipe and didn’t require much time to prepare. I made 40 pieces! They were delicious! I made them to surprise my mom for Palm Sunday and they were a hit! I used white wine for my first time making them but next time I’ll try Limoncello! I will definitely make these again and AGAIN! They were sooooo good!
    Grazie per la ricetta!

    1. Hi Lina,
      Thanks so much for your message – I am delighted that the chiacchiere were a hit. The greatest compliment we can get is when our recipes are shared with the family. Thanks again for your kind words, it means a lot! Cheers, Nico

    1. Hi Alice, yes you can. The wine makes the dough even lighter and more friable than the sparkling water though. But you can.

  3. 5 stars
    My mother used to make chiacchiere at Christmas, but never left a written recipe. Now that she is gone, of course, I want to make my mom’s scarollas (that is what she used to call them). I have tried and tried for six years years, and this is the first recipe that is exactly like hers. I was full of tears of happiness while I was making them. My heart is so full of joy right now. Mille Grazia!!

    1. Hi Sheila, thank you so much for your heart-warming message. It makes us so happy to know that our chiacchiere recipe reminded you of your mom’s scarollas. We are happiest when our recipes bring back some memories ❤️ Big thank you from Italy!