Struffoli Recipe | Pasquale Sciarappa Recipes (2024)

Dough Ingredients:

• 2 cups All Purpose Flour
• 2 Large Eggs (or 3 small eggs), whisked
• 2 Tbsp. Sugar
• 3 Tbsp. Peanut Oil
• 3 Tbsp. Anisette, or replace with water
• Pinch of Salt
• Lemon Zest (3/4 of the lemon)
• Orange Zest (1/2 of the orange)
• Peanut Oil, for frying

Honey Glaze Ingredients:

• 1 cup Honey
• 1 Tbsp. Sugar
• Sprinkles, for topping

Begin by making the dough. In a large mixing bowl, add in the flour, sugar, salt, anisette, peanut oil, eggs, lemon zest and orange zest. Begin slowly mixing by hand to combine all of the ingredients. Once the dough has formed, remove from the bowl and place on a board or tabletop to continue kneading. If the dough is a bit too soft/wet, add a pinch of flour and continue to knead until a thicker dough consistency. Roll the dough into a ball, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Right before removing the dough from the refrigerator, fill a saute pan half way with peanut oil and heat over a medium/high flame.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and remove the plastic wrap. Place the dough on a board or tabletop and flatten out with the palms of your hands or roll out until about 1/4 inch thick. Cut into about 1 inch strips. Roll out each strip and then cut into about 1 inch cubes. If the dough keeps slipping on the board when rolling out, make sure to remove all the flour from the board. Separate the cubes from one another to make sure they don’t stick together when frying. If they are getting stuck on the board, lightly sprinkle with flour.

Once the dough is ready for frying, make sure that the oil is hot enough. You can check by putting the tip of a toothpick, chopstick, or the handle of a wooden spoon and check for bubbles in the oil. If bubbling, the oil is hot enough. Lower the flame to medium and slowly slide the dough pieces into the pan to begin frying. You may have to divide into two batches. Make sure to continuously mix so that the struffoli cook evenly. Continue to fry for about five minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the pan and place on a dish lined with a paper towel to absorb the excess oil.

At this point, begin preparing the honey glaze. In a frying pan large enough to fit all of the struffoli, pour in the honey and sugar and mix for about a minute over a medium/high flame. Add in the struffoli and mix until the struffoli are fully coated with the honey mix.

Remove the struffoli from the pan and place into a dish. Add as many sprinkles as you like and enjoy! Salute and cin cin!