Grandma Helen's Struffoli
photo by Dee514
- Ready In:
- 1hr
- Ingredients:
- 11
- Yields:
-
1 Large Holiday Platter
- Serves:
- 12
ingredients
- 2 cups flour
- 1⁄2 teaspoon baking powder
- 4 tablespoons sugar
- 4 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon vinegar
- 1⁄2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 fluid ounce whiskey (rye, bourbon, or Canadian is fine but not Scotch)
- 3 cups honey (Traditionaly we have always used Golden Blossom brand if not available use pure clover honey)
- oil (for deep frying) or shortening (for deep frying)
- multi colored sprinkles (These are the little round hard sprinkles rather than the soft elongated ones used on ice cream cone)
directions
- Mix all dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
- Add all liquid ingredients (Except honey) to dry to form a dough.
- Knead dough well to incorporate all ingredients.
- For balls roll dough out in 1/4 inch round strips like pencils.
- Cut the pieces at small intervals with an angle cut.
- How far apart you make the cut is your judgment call, as the smaller the spacing the smaller the balls and vice versa.
- Mom likes the look leaving them as is with the angle cut giving a unique shape to the balls as they fry.
- If you prefer perfectly rounded balls, you can roll the pieces in the palms of your hands like miniature meatballs before frying.
- For ribbons cut some of the dough in flat strips about 1/2 inch wide preferably using a crimped edge cutting wheel as it gives a fancy serrated edge to them.
- Form loops or bow shapes with the ribbons and deep fry balls and ribbons separately until golden brown (ribbons as they are flat will cook quicker than the balls).
- Drain on absorbent paper.
- Heat honey in a deep pot until it starts to thin out and become pourable.
- Remove from heat.
- Dip bows and ribbons in warm honey and set aside.
- Add balls to the honey and toss to coat.
- Transfer balls to holiday platter and top with the ribbons and bows.
- Or you can mound the balls to look like a Christmas tree and decorate with bows on the sides.
- Sprinkle with multi colored sprinkles.
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Reviews
-
I made your grandmother's struffoli recipe today, and I was impressed. This recipe is the closest to my grandmother's recipe yet! The only difference is that nana's dough wasn't quite as sweet. I think I will experiment with cutting back on the sugar in the next batch. Thanks sooo much for posting it! :)
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This is pretty good, but I recommend using fresh squeezed lemon juice instead of the vinegar. Some recipes call for limoncello, but using a lemon juice/whiskey combo works well. I also add the zest of 1 lemon to the dough to give it a really good flavor. Other notes about this recipe: I had to add quite a bit of extra flour to the dough to make it not so sticky, and I only needed about half of the honey called for to coat my struffoli.
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Excellent and easy. I love these and my aunts or cousins always made them at Christmas. Now its my turn,I have no idea why it took me so long to make them. I used Jameson's whiskey, since I'm half Italian half Irish I figured it works - LOL Thanks, these will now be on my table every holiday. PS. I also use my regular spoons to measure as did my mom and Nona ;)
Tweaks
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This is pretty good, but I recommend using fresh squeezed lemon juice instead of the vinegar. Some recipes call for limoncello, but using a lemon juice/whiskey combo works well. I also add the zest of 1 lemon to the dough to give it a really good flavor. Other notes about this recipe: I had to add quite a bit of extra flour to the dough to make it not so sticky, and I only needed about half of the honey called for to coat my struffoli.
RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
Steve P.
United States