Just two days ago, on St. Patrick’s Day, many Irish as well as non-Irish people celebrated by wearing green and ate corned beef and cabbage. Well, move over St. Patrick because St. Joseph is coming through, and He is bringing cream puffs with Him.
March 19th is the Feast of St. Joseph; The husband of Mary and the legal father of Jesus Christ. Growing up in a Catholic family, we celebrated St. Joseph’s Day, but not the way Italian Americans do.
It wasn’t until I was in the workforce with many Italian Americans did I understand the extent of this feast day and how important it is to them.
St. Joseph is the protector of fathers and the Patron Saint of workers; Joseph was a carpenter himself. He is also the Patron Saint of Sicily in Italy. March 19 was dedicated to Him by the 10th century. It wasn’t until the 15th century that it became a feast day.
According to Italian Americans, legend has it that in the 1600s, there was a terrible drought in Sicily, and the citizens prayed to San Giuseppe or St. Joseph as we know him for rain. They promised if he made it rain, they would name a feast day after Him and feed the hungry if their crops were saved, preventing a famine.
Well, I am sure you can guess that St. Joseph made it rain and saved the crops. One of the crops that saved them from famine was fava beans.
In Italy, Catholic churches set up altars of food in remembrance of St. Joseph, and people were fed. They held up their end of the bargain too.
On the alters, which were tables covered in white or red tablecloths, were many seafood dishes since the celebration is held during lent and meat isn’t allowed. There were also pasta and bean dishes, especially fava beans. Many desserts were also found on the alters, including Zeppole di San Giuseppe.
In our country, St. Joseph’s Day is also celebrated by Italian’s with food like in Sicily. Instead of green like the Irish wear, Italians were red and carry a lucky fava bean in their pockets.
Seafood and pasta dishes are made for the feast day along with zeppole di San Giuseppe…cream puffs! My favorite!
After I found out about St. Joseph’s day from my co-workers and friends, I started noticing that St. Joseph’s Day cream puffs were everywhere, in every single bakery!
How did I, or better yet, my father not know about this whole St. Joseph’s Day cream puff thing beforehand? Jesus, my father, couldn’t walk past a bakery or dessert carousel in a diner without picking something out. My parents grew up in an Italian neighborhood, for Pete’s sake! Seriously WTF?
Here is another interesting tidbit of information, Italians start their garden seeds on St. Joseph’s Day because he helped save the crops. Pretty damn clever on their part, I have to admit. I never knew why they chose that exact day to start their seeds until I did my research on St. Joseph.
When we still lived in NJ, we went to a bakery for St. Joseph’s Day cream puffs; when we moved to Vermont, there were no bakeries anywhere. That’s when I tried making them myself. It took me a while to figure them out; I had many shit fits.
In 2010 when I had to go gluten-free, one of the things I missed was my cream puffs. This was a total bummer, and I sulked about it. LOL
I figured out about 5 years ago that another baking miracle is; I can use my 20-year-old recipe for cream puffs and eclairs, just like my Irish soda bread recipe I told you about using gluten-free all-purpose flour! Saints Patrick and Joseph both had my back when baking for their feast days.
St. Joseph’s Day cream puffs can be filled with pastry cream, whipped cream, or sometimes ice cream. I make mine with pastry cream. 😋
Last night I whipped up some pastry cream. I say whipped up because now it’s a breeze to make, but it used to stress me out. A couple of batches went into the trash when I was learning; either the cream never thickened, or I had scrambled eggs in my pastry cream because I forgot to temper my eggs.
I just made the actual cream puffs. I got them into the oven and said a quick prayer to St. Joseph that they puff up. You can’t open the door of the oven to check, or they may collapse. I started writing this post to keep myself busy while they were baking.
I just opened the oven when the timer went off and squealed with happiness, they came out. Now I just have to let them cool and fill them with the pastry cream. Yay!
I just plated up my cream puffs and put them on a red platter to honor St. Joseph. I had to take a bite of one just for the photo for this post; it was excellent. Poor Marty had to eat the rest and said they were incredible. Yay! 😉
So if you didn’t know about St. Joseph and his cream puffs…well now you know.
I love reading about the cultural history of food. It felt like I was traveling reading your writing. I wish I could taste the cream puffs!