Struffoli: the original recipe for the colorful and scenographic Neapolitan festive dessert – Tale Of Travels

The struffoli they are a typical Christmas dessert of the pastry shop Neapolitan, greedy and colorful. They are small balls of dough flavored with anise, made of flour, butter, sugar, eggs and grated citrus peel, which are first fries in boiling seed oil, then garnish with the honeyedslightly melted on the fire, colored sugar nuggets and candied cubes.

Once ready, they are molded while still hot into the desired shapes, then usually served as a dessert. end of meal on Christmas Eve evening and Christmas Day, or brought to the table on New Year’s Eve with a glass of wine with raisins and other festive delights.

We have them ready pyramid in a serving dish, for a scenographic and effective result, but if you prefer you can package them in donuts, Christmas trees, stars… And then offer them to your guests as a welcome gift: it will be a very appreciated gift. Alternatively, you can cover them with dark chocolate or, for a lighter variant, you can put them in the oven: just bake them for ten minutes at 180°C then dip them in honey.

So good that one leads to another, struffoli are made in many different regions with small variations on the theme: in center Italy (Abruzzo, Marche, Lazio, Umbria and Molise) take the name of cicerchiata, and are characterized by the addition of oil instead of butter in the dough. In Sardinia They are named giggeriin the Salento sannaclose oh little pigsin Calabria e in Basilicata, to cutwhile, in Sicilyduring the Carnival period, you can taste the pignolata.

It seems that the name struffoli comes from the Greek strongylosis (round) which literally means “round”, so much so that among the Greek specialties we still find i loukoumades, nuggets of fried pasta, sautéed in granulated sugar, very close to the Neapolitan dessert. According to other sources, they were the pinion the precursors of Neapolitan struffoli are Andalusian, from which they are distinguished by the addition of almonds and pine nuts to finish, and by the cylindrical shape.

Find out how to prepare struffoli by following the step-by-step procedure and tips. If you liked this recipe, also try the roccocò and the mostaccioli, or try your hand at other Neapolitan sweets suitable for the times.

How to prepare struffoli

To make the struffoli, we start first with the dough, then we proceed to the frying and, finally, we move on to the decoration with honey, candied fruit and colored vermicelli.

Prepare the dough

Place the flour in a fountain 1 and add a pinch of salt.

Crack the eggs in the center 2.

Mix the sugar 3.

Flavor with grated lemon zest 4.

Also grate the orange zest 5.

Add the soft butter in pieces 6.

Pour the anise liqueur seven and start kneading with your hands.

Once the ingredients are incorporated into the flour, continue working the dough 8until you get a smooth and homogeneous paste.

form a palla 9: if the dough is too soft, add a little flour.

Wrap the stick with a sheet of transparent film ten and transfer it to the refrigerator for 1 hour.

After the rest time, take the dough back and divide it into several portions using a tarot 11.

Shape of the rolls 12 on a lightly floured work surface.

Cut them into pieces about 1/2 cm thick 13.

Make balls by rolling the dough in the palm of your hand 14.

Do this until you run out of ingredients 15.

Fry the struffoli

Fry the struffoli, a few at a time, in plenty of boiling seed oil, dipping them with a slotted spoon 16. If the oil, after frying a few times, begins to foam a little, filter it with a fine sieve and reuse it a maximum of two times, always filtering it: this will eliminate the residue of batter and flour at the bottom of the pan. , responsible for surface foam.

When they take on a beautiful golden color, remove the struffoli 17.

As soon as they are ready, transfer them to a plate lined with paper towel and let them drain well. 18.

Season and decorate the struffoli

Meanwhile, pour the honey into a large saucepan 19.

Melt gently over low heat until smooth 20then remove from heat.

Pour the struffoli into the pan with the hot honey 21.

Add the candied fruit mixture and mix with a spoon 22.

Mix colorful candies 23 and mix again to distribute them evenly.

Transfer the struffoli to a serving dish and arrange them in a pyramid 24.

Bring to the table and serve 25.

Tips and variations

In addition to anise liqueur you can flavor the dessert with a drop of rum, or you can add a pinch of baking powder or a little baking soda to the batter, to make the struffoli fluffier and fluffier when fried.

In case of guests celiacs you can make struffoli with gluten-free flour, by mixing rice or cornstarch with the rest of the ingredients, and use oil instead of butter.

Or, for a release veganyou can replace the butter with a vegetable margarine without hydrogenated fat, and omit the eggs from the preparation: in this case we suggest that you decorate the struffoli, instead of honey, with a lightly caramelized, flavored sugar syrup with orange juice.

storage

The struffoli can be stored in the refrigerator, in an airtight container, for Three days massive.