Name: Pets de Nonne (Cream Puff Fritters)
Yield: Makes 30 to 35 fritters to serve 5 or 6
Cuisine: France
Ingredients: ½ teaspoon salt; 3 to 4 eggs; vegetable oil, for deep-frying; ⅔ cup/90 g flour; ⅓ cup/75 g butter, cut into cubes; confectioners’ sugar, honey, or jam, for serving; ¾ cup/175 ml. water

Preparation info

Makes 30 to 35 fritters to serve
5 or 6

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

The Country Cooking of France

By Anne Willan

Published 2007

About

Fritters of deep-fried cream-puff pastry, topped with a dab of jam, honey, or a simple sprinkling of sugar, are beloved by all generations in France. Toddlers learn the name and no polite translation exists. It means quite simply “nun’s farts” because the fritters are so light.

Ingredients

Pâte à Choux

¾ cup/175 ml. water
½ teaspoon salt

Method

Make the pâte à choux. Heat the oil to 375°F/190°C in a deep-fryer and warm the oven to low. To fry the fritters, using 2 teaspoons, drop balls of dough the size of small walnuts into the hot oil, taking care not to crowd the pan. Fry the fritters until golden on all sides, 6 to 7 minutes. The dough swells in contact with the heat, so the fritters puff and usually turn by themselves, though the