Honey Drenched Christmas Fritters: Struffoli
Recipe copyright 2000, Mario Batali. All rights reserved.

A plate of these sweet bites on the coffee table means only one thing: Christmas week has arrived. These are a traditional sweet served at Christmas in Italy, often with colored sprinkles and sometimes in the shape of a wreath.

Another Italian sweet, called Pignolata, is similar to Struffoli and is also made of little bite-size morsels of fried dough, covered with caramelized honey and topped with festive sprinkles, and sometimes candied fruit. Nuts are sometimes also added. Neapolitans call them struffoli and the Sicilians and Calabrese call them pignolata. Sicilian pignolata comes from the word pignula, meaning, in Sicilian dialect, "pine nut," because the sweet resembles a big pine nut. The name struffoli originates from the Greek word strongoulos, which means rounded.

Sicilian pignolata is popular during Carnival time, the last celebration before Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. The Neapolitan sweet, struffoli, is typically served at Christmastime.

For an Ancient Greek recipe, see Enkris (Honey Cakes). For an Ancient Roman recipe, see Globuli.

3 1/2 cups flour
6 eggs, plus 1 egg yolk
1 lemon, zested and juiced, plus 1 lemon, zested
1 orange, zested
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon limoncello or Grand Marnier
4 cups canola or peanut oil, for frying
2 cups honey
Powdered sugar, for dusting

In a mixing bowl, place flour, eggs, yolk, zest of 1 lemon, orange zest, salt, and limoncello and mix well to form a firm dough, 8 to 10 minutes. Place in the refrigerator and allow to rest 30 minutes.

Remove from the refrigerator and cut golf ball-sized pieces of dough from the main batch. Roll each ball into a 1/2-inch thick dowel (rope) and cut each dowel into 1/2-inch pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and continue until finished with all dough.

In a 12 to 14-inch skillet with at least 3-inch sides, heat the oil to 375 degrees F. Drop enough balls in to cover about half of the surface of frying oil and cook until dark golden brown. Use a slotted spoon to turn them regularly, and expect them to puff up while cooking. As they finish, remove them to a tray covered with paper towels, and drain well. This should take at least 5 batches.

When all of the struffoli are cooked, heat the honey, lemon juice, and zest together in a wide 6 to 8 quart saucepan until quite warm, about 150 degrees F, and substantially thinner. Add struffoli to honey and stir carefully until well coated. Remove from heat and allow to cool 5 minutes in the pan, stirring regularly. Pour out into a large serving tray in the form of either a pyramid or a ring mold. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve.

10 servings