Easy Struffoli Recipe

Mixing the dough

1. Melt the butter and leave it to cool.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, lemon and orange zest, salt and baking powder.
3. Now add the sugar, the cooled butter and the liquor and stir with a wooden spoon until you get a fairly homogeneous mixture.
4. Create a hole in the center of the flour and add the eggs and stir in well. The mixture should start to form a compact ball.
5. Knead with your hands until the mixture is very well mixed and has no lumps. Form the dough into a ball, cover with plastic wrap and leave to rest for 30 minutes at room temperature.
6. Cut off a piece weighing about 50 grams and roll it on a flat, cool work surface with your hands to form a long cylinder shape of about 1 cm in width.
7. With a knife, cut the dough cylinder into 0.4 in | 1 cm pieces. You can either use the irregular balls as they are or form smooth round balls, to do so roll each piece of struffoli into small 0.4 | 1 cm tiny balls about the size of a hazelnut.
8. Place them all on a lightly floured surface and lightly dust the balls with flour.

Frying the dough balls

1. In a frying pan with high sides, pour in the vegetable oil and turn on high or medium heat. Keep track of the temperature using a thermometer. Heat it until it reaches 375° F | 190° C.
2. Fry the balls in batches of about 15. It should take around one to two minutes per batch. The balls should be a light golden brown.
3. Line a serving plate with paper towels. Once the balls are done, remove them with a slotted spoon and place them on the plate and let the paper towels absorb the excess oil.

Glazing and decorating the dough balls

1. In a very large saucepan, make the honey syrup by combining honey, confectioner's sugar and vanilla extract. Heat the mixture, stirring frequently, over low heat with a spoon until the sugar dissolves.
2. Turn off the heat and add all the fried dough balls carefully into the mixture. Stir the mixture slowly by turning the honey over the balls, making sure not to damage the dough balls. Add most of the sprinkles and candied fruit as well and mix in gently. Set aside any extra honey.
3. Once all the balls are evenly coated with the honey mixture, transfer and arrange the balls on a serving platter in whatever shape you want, from a pyramid to a wreath. You can also leave a hole in the center and insert half a washed lemon or orange.
4. After you’ve assembled the balls on the serving platter, carefully pour any of the remaining honey mixture on top, as desired.
5. Next, use the remaining sprinkles and any other edible decorations to decorate the top of the honey coated balls and your struffoli is ready to be served!