Struffoli (Italian Honey Balls)
Struffoli or Italian Honey Balls are tiny balls of fried dough tossed in a delicious sticky honey sauce and decorated with festive sprinkles. It's such a fun and impressive Italian Christmas dessert that the whole family can get involved making!
Servings: 12 servings
Equipment
- candy or sugar thermometer
- heavy-based pot for frying
Ingredients
For the dough
- 3 cups Italian 00 or all-purpose flour (420g) spooned and leveled*
- ⅓ cup sugar (65g)
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 3 large eggs lightly beaten
- 1 zest of one orange
- 2 tablespoons dark rum
- 4 tablespoons melted butter (55g)
- 1 pinch of salt
- Vegetable oil for frying
For coating
- 1 cup honey (300g)
- Sprinkles
Instructions
Make the dough
- Put all the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, salt & orange zest) in a large mixing bowl and stir to combine. Make a well in the middle and add the melted butter, eggs and rum.
- Mix the ingredients together until it starts to come together then knead into a smooth ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and leave to rest for 30 minutes.
Fry
- Once rested, cut the dough in half then cut each half into 3 equal pieces. One at a time roll each piece of dough into a long sausage shape about 1cm (1/2 inch) thick. Cut each log into small pieces roughly 1cm (1/2 inch) in size (just like making gnocchi but much smaller).
- Roll each cut piece of dough into balls using the palms of your hands and place on a board or surface lightly dusted with flour so they don’t stick. Make sure they are in a single layer and not on top of each other.
- Using a thermometer, heat the oil in a large pot to 375°F (190°C) at least 2-3 inches deep. Fry the struffoli in batches until golden brown (30-40 seconds). Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper.
- Once the struffoli have cooled, add the honey to a large pot (big enough to hold all of the struffoli) and heat it gently just until it becomes very liquidy, it will only take a few seconds.
- Add the cooled struffoli and gently stir until they are thoroughly coated in the honey, let them soak up the honey for 2-3 minutes.
Assemble
- Arrange the struffoli in your desired shape (ring or mound). To create a ring, place a ramekin or large glass in the middle of your serving plate and arrange the struffoli around it. You can remove the ramekin after a few minutes. Alternatively, arrange the struffoli in a large mound on a plate, then decorate with sprinkles.
Video
Notes
- Measuring flour - I highly recommend using a kitchen scale when working with flour, but if you are using cups, make sure to spoon it into cups and level it off with a knife.
- Rolling out the dough - Don't flour your surface to roll the dough into logs unless you really need to as it can make it much harder to roll out. There's enough butter in the dough so it shouldn't stick.
- Leftovers - prepared struffoli with honey will keep well for around 2-3 days stored in an airtight container at room temperature.
Nutrition
Calories: 364kcal | Carbohydrates: 63g | Protein: 8g | Fat: 10g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Cholesterol: 41mg | Sodium: 179mg | Potassium: 237mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 29g | Vitamin A: 226IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 37mg | Iron: 2mg
