‘Angel wings’ feature in several European cuisines and are most often eaten in the period just before Lent. In Italy, these were called crostoli, which is where these Crostoli King Vanilla Crostoli claim as their origin. We were passed this box by D’s parents who received it from relatives more accustomed to European desserts.
These were thin twisted ribbons of sweet crisp pastry, deep-fried and sprinkled with powdered sugar. According to the back of the box ‘angel wings’ are known as ‘sweet fritters’ in English, ‘diples’ in Greek, ‘krostile’ in Croation, ‘krusdrik’ in Polish and even ‘dan sahn’ by the Chinese.
These crostoli smell like sweet egg pastry and are every bit as thin, light and crispy as the packaging promises. The crostoli crumble as you crunch through before melting in your mouth with a gentle sweetness. Overall, though, they’re very ordinary desserts on their own and rely on something accompanying, like fruit, syrup or cream to be enjoyable.
This Crostoli King Vanilla Crostoli contained 150 g. It was produced in Australia and gifted by relatives in Sydney, Australia in 2018.