Uncle Tony's Struffoli





When it comes to making struffoli, my Uncle Tony is the king! Each dough ball is carefully handcrafted and cooked to perfection. Christmas Eve just wouldn’t be the same without this recipe gracing our table. Our whole family looks forward to it every year.

Struffoli is a Neapolitan dish made of deep fried balls of dough about the size of marbles. They are nice and crunchy on the outside and very light on the inside. They are traditionally served with honey and colored sprinkles. They grace the table at Christmas and Easter and are best served warm.

If you know anything about struffoli, it’s almost impossible to eat just one. I know I can’t! Get ready for a delicious treat and some sticky fingers!

I dare you to eat just one! Enjoy!


Ingredients:

6 eggs, 5 Cups Gold Medal All Purpose Flour, 3 Cups Mazola Corn oil, 3 Tbsp Extra virgin Olive Oil, 3 Tbsp Sugar, 3/4 Cup Almond Flavor Amaretto Liqueur, 1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract, One 40oz. jar Golden Blossom Honey, a Pinch of Salt, Three 3oz. containers of Cake Mate Nonpareil Decors Multi Colored Sprinkles.

Equipment:

3 large Cookie Sheets lined with wax paper, A Large Bowl (Glass or Stainless Steel), A Medium size Bowl, Electric Hand Mixer, Cutting Board, 2 Spatulas (1 slotted and 1 flat not slotted), a 12" nonstick Frying pan, three 12" Aluminum Foil Pans.

Preparing the Dough:

Add eggs, olive oil, sugar, Liqueur, vanilla extract and salt to a bowl and using the electric mixer, mix until ingredients are thoroughly blended together.

Once this is done, still using the electric mixer, add the flour, 1 cup at a time, until the dough is sticky and slowly stretches off the mixing blades. The mixture is ready to be rolled and cut into the struffoli pieces.

Rolling and Cutting the Dough:

Throw some flour on the cutting board. Then take a table spoon of the dough mixture and put it on the cutting board. The mixture is sticky so you have to push the flour onto the dough and roll the dough in the flour until it is not sticky.

With your fingers, roll and stretch the dough into a snake like shape about a 1/2 inch thick. Cut the snake into 1/2 inch pieces.

With your two fingers (Thumb and Index), pinch each piece and place them on the cookie sheet. You could roll them but that takes more time. This is a very forgiving recipe so don't worry about making the perfect size or shape.

Once you have the cookie sheets filled with pieces, you are ready to fry them.

Frying the Dough Pieces:

Add 3 cups of oil to the frying pan and heat over a medium flame. Once the oil is hot (when a pinch of flour sizzles) you are ready to fry the pieces. Using the flat spatula, gently put the pieces into the oil.

Once in the oil, the pieces will puff up. Using the slotted spatula, constantly turned the pieces over and over until they are golden brown. Be careful not to burn them. They cook quickly.

As the pieces are done, using the slotted spatula, remove them from the oil and place them into a large bowl.

Once in the bowl add a generous amount of sugar over them while they are hot and mix together. Do this each time you add the contents of the frying pan into the bowl.

When all the frying is done and the Struffoli are in the bowl mixed with the sugar, add 3/4 of the jar of Honey and an entire 30z container of the Nonpareils and mix well. You are now ready to fill the aluminum pans.

Once the aluminum pans are filled, if you like add more honey and more nonpareils on top. Let them cool and enjoy.



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