Struffoli (Italian Honey Balls)
- Tracy Scheckel
- Nov 16, 2024
- 4 min read
Struffoli are light and airy honey coated (and sometimes nonparallel dotted) golden puffs of goodness that are yummy to pick on, delicious floating in a cup of coffee or hot cocoa, and they keep very well and get better with age. I would always hide some to enjoy on my birthday in mid-January and they were better then when we'd first made them in mid December.
Making the struffoli was a long standing tradition in our house, and I strongly recommend having you family around to help make them.
When I was a kid, my mom, sometimes my Nana, and my Aunt Joan would all work together to make this recipe. As my sister and I got older we would help but were NEVER allowed to fry or boil the honey!
Judging by how many little bowls we filled to give away, I am guessing that we made at least a double batch every year, but honestly, it was probably more. We always divided the struffoli into small bowls, wrapped them in plastic wrap, added a bow or a gift tag, and gave them as gifts. We rarely used the nonpareils; while they look nice, they really don't add anything but some extra sugar and whatever stuff they use to color them.
When we did get together to make them, it was basically an assembly line. My mother would have the dough made in advance and divided as the recipe instructs. She would get the first couple of pieces of dough rolled out and pass them off to the next person to cut the strips. That person would pass the strops off to the rollers (That was usually my sister and I -- likely because there were no knives or flames involved). We would roll the strips between our palms until that were like tubes. The next person would cut those tubes into 1/2" pieces and pass them off to my mother who by then had taken up residence at the fryer (a stock pot with 4" of vegetable oil). This went on for a couple of hours and once all the frying was done, my mom would heat the honey and toss all of the struffoli with it in a giant lasagna pan or 2 or 3.
For reference, I divided the recipe in thirds in order to get the photos for this post and it took me by myself about 90 from start to finish to make the bowlful pictured here.
THE RECIPE:
4 -5c flour
2t baking powder
1t salt
3T white wine (DO NOT leave this out)
6 eggs beaten
1/4c oil
Oil or shortening for frying
1 quart honey for coating
Whisk together the dry ingredients
Whisk the wine, oil, and eggs until blended
Add liquid to flour mixture and knead until smooth and completely combined. I typically use the stand mixer and dough hook, but it's an easy dough to work so not a big deal to do it the old fashioned way.
Divide dough into quarters and cover three with a towel in a bowl.
Roll the first quarter of the dough out into a circle to 1/8” thick.
Cut the rolled out dough into strips about a half inch wide.
Roll each strip of dough between your palms into a long ‘rope’ (part straw and part worm).
Cut the rope into half inch pieces.If you’re working alone, get all of this done before you begin to fry. (You really do want to make a party of this.)
In a deep fryer or large heavy pot, or Dutch oven, heat oil or shortening to 375º.
In small batches, carefully drop the pieces of dough into the hot oil. Fry until the little pieces are golden and float to the top.
With a slotted spoon, take them from the oil and lay them out on clean paper towels to drain a bit.
Repeat until all the dough is done.
It’s important not to burn the oil, plus you may need to add oil periodically. If that’s the case make sure it gets up to temperature before adding more struffoli to fry.
After all the flying is done, and the struffoli are drained put them in large pans or bowls for the honey bath.
Pour a quart of honey into a sauce pan and heat until it boils, don’t look away, if it boils over it’s an ugly mess. Remove from heat and ladle it over the struffoli and toss them very well.
If you’re planning to give little dishes as gifts, this is a good time to separate into those dishes. Once the honey gets back to room temperature, it’s pretty sticky and can make it difficult to portion out the struffoli out.
Some people garnish by sprinkling colored nonpareils on them, but as I said, we didn't.
And that 2 Tablespoons of Wine?
Let me tell you about the importance of the white wine. One of the things that people love about my family's struffoli is how light and airy they are. Others, either from some else’s kitchen or even the best Italian bakery are very heavy and dense when you bite down on them and need to soften up in a cup of coffee or hot cocoa. Ours melt in your mouth.
