Neapolitan Struffoli All the Secrets Step by Step
This DOC Neapolitan struffoli recipe is from my paternal grandmother, carefully preserved in the family and passed down from generation to generation.
Struffoli are the quintessential Christmas dessert in Naples between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. They are a joyful and festive treat, decorated with candied fruit and colorful sprinkles, and are often given as a (always very welcome) gift to relatives and friends.
The dough is very easy to prepare, requiring just a bit of patience and attention during the execution and frying. But if you follow my original recipe and its step-by-step SECRETS, you won’t have any problems, it’s a foolproof recipe.
I want to clarify that true Neapolitan struffoli are NOT soft, and there should be NO baking powder. When you cut a slice, it should be compact, and the struffoli should be connected and crispy, not loose. It’s important to use raw honey rather than liquid honey, which keeps them together.
If you want to prepare these magnificent struffoli in large quantities, to speed up the preparation I recommend (instead of forming the pasta rolls by hand) rolling out the dough into thin sheets with a pasta machine and then cutting it into small pieces (you get it as a gift at Christmas and already have it for Carnival’s chiacchiere and homemade pasta in general).
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- Difficulty: Medium
- Cost: Medium
- Rest time: 30 Minutes
- Preparation time: 40 Minutes
- Portions: 8 people
- Cooking methods: Frying
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Christmas, New Year
Ingredients for the Neapolitan Struffoli All the Secrets Step by Step
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 oz lard (or butter, BUT lard gives crispiness)
- 5 eggs
- 2 egg yolks
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tsp fine salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 lemon (zested)
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 1/3 tbsp anise liqueur
- 1 3/4 cups honey (raw)
- 1/8 cup granulated sugar
- 2 oranges
- 2 mandarins
- 1 lemon
- 1/3 tsp olive oil (for frying)
- as needed colored sprinkles
- as needed candied fruit
- as needed candied cherries
Tools
- Stand Mixer Kenwood 1400 W Power, Illuminated Bowl
- Pasta Machine
- Fryer
- Pot
Steps for the Neapolitan Struffoli All the Secrets Step by Step
First, add the lard and flour to the stand mixer and give it a turn with the K beater, then add the eggs (5 whole and two yolks), sugar (60 g), salt, vanilla, grated zest of one lemon, cinnamon, and anise and mix until the dough does not stick to the hands. Then place the dough to rest in the fridge covered for about an hour (resting the dough is important).
After the necessary time, proceed to form the dough rolls (or to speed up, you can use the pasta machine) lightly flouring the work surface and trying to use as little flour as possible.
The rolls must be thin (this is the secret to making them crispier!), and once formed, they are cut with a knife into tiny cubes (during frying, due to the presence of eggs, they grow and puff up) and are placed on a floured surface, without overlapping them.
Once the dough is finished, heat a high-sided pan (or the appropriate fryer) with olive oil (it should be hot, around 350°F) and fry the struffoli in small batches (important!) taking care to pass them through a sieve to remove excess flour (this is the secret! to prevent oil from overflowing during frying) the oil must be hot, but not boiling (otherwise they color too much on the outside and are not cooked well inside) as soon as they are golden, place them on a plate with absorbent paper.
P.S.: if during frying the oil starts to foam, insert a steel spoon and stir to prevent the oil from overflowing.
Once the frying is done, melt in a wide, high-sided pan, 400 g of raw honey (usually for half a kilo of cooked struffoli, 250 g of raw honey is calculated; those in the photo were 700 g) with 30 g of sugar, two oranges, two mandarins, and one grated lemon. As soon as the honey has melted and boils, the struffoli are poured in and all are gently coated with the honey using a large spoon. Be careful not to keep them on the heat too long, otherwise they caramelize and become hard, instead, they must be crispy, but NOT soft!!
Pour the struffoli onto a serving plate, with a glass in the center, shape into a ring (if you want, you can help yourself with a halved orange, so you don’t burn yourself) and sprinkle with colored sprinkles (in Naples they are called “diavolilli”) and candied cherries.
The struffoli last even a week, but they usually disappear much sooner 😉 )
Shopping Tips!!!
For perfect and convenient mixing, I often use my Kenwood Titanium Chef Patissier XL stand mixer with illuminated 7L bowl, integrated scale, and blender, with 1400 W of power, a faithful ally in the kitchen for: kneading, weighing, whisking, melting chocolate, pasteurizing eggs.
If instead, you’re looking for a more economical and smaller stand mixer, you can safely choose to buy Kenwood Titanium Chef Baker, with dual bowls 5L and 3.5L, 1200W power.
You can find both stand mixers on Amazon at a special price.
If you want to prepare these magnificent struffoli in large quantities, to speed up the preparation I recommend (instead of forming the pasta rolls) rolling out the dough into thin sheets with the electric pasta machine. I own this Marcato Atlasmotor, it’s the best, and I find it great because it’s equipped with a motor and three different pasta shapes (you get it for Carnival too for the chiacchiere) and you can find it on Amazon at a special price.
To quickly fry the struffoli without oil overflowing from the pot, I use this handy 3-liter fryer, the cool walls prevent food residues from burning on the bottom, equipped with a safety oil filter that prevents excessive splashing, boiling, and spills, particularly useful for frying even frozen food, easy to disassemble for dishwasher cleaning, you can find it on Amazon at a special price.
FAQ (Questions and Answers)
How long do struffoli last?
Struffoli can be stored at room temperature, covered with aluminum foil, for 10-15 days, thanks to honey being a natural preservative.
Why must the real struffolo be small?
Because this increases the surface of dough that comes into contact with the honey, enhancing the flavor.
What is the origin and history of Struffoli?
It seems that the Greeks brought them to the Gulf of Naples back in the days of Magna Graecia. In fact, in current Greek cuisine, there is still a similar preparation, loukoumades.
What are Struffoli?
Small balls of dough, no more than 0.4 inches in diameter, fried in oil (or lard) and then coated in warm honey and arranged on a serving plate in the shape of a ring or auspicious cornucopia, decorated with candied fruit and colorful sprinkles.
How to prevent Struffoli from foaming during frying?
By removing excess flour with a sieve, adding a steel spoon (or a cork stopper), and frequently changing the frying oil.
Why are they called Struffoli?
The Neapolitan etymological dictionary associates the “struffolo” with a “small bundle of straw or hemp”: the term used commonly in cooking likely derived from, by resemblance, the “struffo,” the tuft used to clean and polish marble. This word was introduced into Italy, eventually becoming part of the vernacular vocabulary, by the Lombards, who used to define “struff” as something “taken from a larger piece.”
But the most accredited hypothesis traces the etymology of “struffolo” back to the Greek “strongoulos,” which means “round.”
