Struffoli (Italian Honey Ball Cookies) Recipe on Food52 (2024)

For Italian-Americans, the Christmas season is a serious study in food traditions. For years, our family has dedicated Christmas Eve morning to slicing thin flounder filets, frying greasy platefuls of pizza fritte, and piling a bounty of assorted shellfish into a stockpot bubbling with a special, spicy tomato sauce reserved especially for the holiday.

Among our many holiday food traditions is struffoli, a classic cookie common in southern Italy and typically served during the Christmas season. I like to think of struffoli, which are about the size of marbles or hazelnuts, as tiny Christmas fritters. When placed into a saucepan filled with hot oil, the citrusy dough puffs up into rustic golden balls that have crunchy exteriors but warm, soft interiors. Once fried, the small, bite-sized cookies are drenched in a sweet honey glaze and decorated with colorful sprinkles or nonpareils.

Throughout my childhood, my grandmother often painstakingly assembled her struffoli into a lavish wreath or cone shape, which she unveiled at the end of our holiday meal. I admit that I lack her patience in the presentation department and instead, I often choose to simply pour a fresh batch of my struffoli into the largest serving bowl I can find. Regardless of how you choose to present them, these light, sweet cookies will become a welcome new tradition at your holiday spread. —Angela Brown

Directions

1. Add the eggs, flour, 1 teaspoon vanilla, salt, and citrus zest to a large bowl. Mix by hand until the mixture forms a sticky dough. Form the dough into a ball. On a lightly floured surface, knead the dough ball for 2 to 3 minutes. Cut the dough into six equal-sized pieces. Roll each piece into long, thin ropes, about 1/2-inch thick. Cut off 1/4- to 1/2-inch pieces of each dough rope and roll each one into a small ball shape (don’t worry about making them perfect; imperfect shapes work perfectly fine here).
2. Pour enough oil into a large, heavy-bottomed sauce pan to fill it about one third of the way. Heat the oil to 350° F. Meanwhile, prepare a dish lined with paper towels to absorb excess oil. When the oil reaches the desired temperature, carefully drop in the dough balls in small batches and fry until they puff up and become golden brown on all sides. Using a metal spider, carefully remove the fried dough and transfer to the paper towel-lined dish. Continue until all dough balls are fried.
3. While the dough balls fry, add the honey and the remaining teaspoon of vanilla to a small saucepan set over medium heat. Stir occasionally and remove from heat once the honey reaches a syrup-like consistency, about 5 minutes.
4. Add the still-warm fried dough balls to a large bowl. Pour the hot honey glaze and the nonpareils into the bowl and mix until incorporated. The struffoli can be served immediately or stored in an airtight container for 2 days.

Recipe by: Angela Brown