Photo: from open sources
These are small golden balls that are served on holidays.
Struffoli is an excellent Neapolitan Christmas dessert. A golden dome of delicious balls of fried dough, honey and candied fruits, flavored with citrus and topped with a sprinkle of sugar.
The dough for struffoli is very simple: eggs, flour and sugar are mixed with butter and flavored with sweet liqueur and citrus zest. It should sit for at least an hour, but if you can leave it in the refrigerator overnight, that’s even better. This sweet and delicious dessert is a real piece of Italy on your Christmas table, the recipe for which was shared on the Cucchiaio website.
If you don’t like to fry, you can opt for baked struffoli. Just fry the balls not in oil, but bake in the oven for about 15 minutes.
Struffoli
Ingredients:
For the test:
- 500 g flour;
- 120 g granulated sugar;
- 60 g soft butter;
- 4 eggs;
- 2 egg yolks;
- 30 g anise liqueur;
- 1 lemon;
- 4 g salt;
- sunflower oil for frying.
For decoration:
- 1 orange;
- 1 lemon;
- 300 g honey;
- 100 g granulated sugar;
- 100 g candied fruits;
- colored sprinkles.
Preparation:
- To prepare struffoli, mix flour, sugar, butter and grated lemon zest. Work with your fingers until you get coarse crumbs. Add the eggs and anise liqueur and mix everything until you get a smooth dough. Form the dough into a ball, cover it with cling film and leave it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.
- After this time, tear off a piece of dough from the ball, roll out a cord about 1 cm thick and cut it into equal large pieces.
- Proceed in the same way until all the dough is finished, gradually laying out the resulting pieces on a clean cloth. Then fry them a few at a time in plenty of hot oil until they are golden brown. Remove them with a slotted spoon and leave to cool on appropriate paper.
- Remove the zest from the oranges and lemons with a very sharp knife so as not to damage the white part underneath. Then cut it into very thin strips. Pour honey and sugar into a saucepan and heat until the sugar is completely dissolved.
- Add the zest, stir and turn off the heat. Drizzle sweet syrup over the mound of struffoli and sprinkle with candied fruits and sprinkles.
