zeppole san giuseppe

Italian bakeries in Toronto are selling out of zeppole for San Giuseppe

San Giuseppe Day, also known as Saint Joseph's Day or the Feast of Saint Joseph, the Catholic feast day for father for Jesus' father, is celebrated on Mar. 19. A kind of extra Father's Day, it is celebrated many ways, but every one of them includes zeppole.

Zeppole are kind of like donuts, fried dough typically topped with powdered sugar, often with some type of filling. The zeppole dates back to the 1800s, and on San Giuseppe Day they're usually eaten and placed on altars along with bread, wine, flowers, cakes, cookies and fava beans.

One of Toronto's most popular Italian bakeries, SanRemo, makes popular zeppole the entire month of March.

Ed Bozzo of SanRemo told blogTO they'll be making all 15,000 of theirs by hand and filling them with things like custard, amarena cherries, ricotta, Nutella and special for this weekend, he says they're making some with limoncello and a version with Baci chocolates.

Chef Francesco Lefano and his team at Amico Bakery are making their own versions of the pastry in five flavours: crema-amarena, ricotta-amarena, ricotta-Nutella, ricotta-pear and pistachio.

They had made about 3,000 when blogTO caught up with them on Friday, and they were selling as fast as the team could make them.

"We're getting  close right now to selling out," manager Linda Plati says. "We're still taking orders, but it will just be while supplies last for the rest of the day."

Lead photo by

Amico Bakery


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