Struffoli with Nutella®
An Italian classic with a Nutella® twist
This Christmas, bring home a taste of Italy with a twist on a beloved classic! These golden, bite-sized struffoli are transformed with Nutella®. Forget plain Italian honey balls, this struffoli recipe takes things up a notch with a touch of chocolate and hazelnuts.
INGREDIENTS for 6 portions
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300 g Plain flour
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3 Whole eggs
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70 g Butter
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1 Sachet of vanillin
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1 Glass of anise liqueur
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1 Pinch of salt
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100 g Sugar
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Zest of 1 lemon
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½ Teaspoon of baking powder
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Seed oil for frying
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Chopped hazelnuts
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90 g Nutella® (15 g/portion)
HOW TO MAKE STRUFFOLI
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STEP 1In a large bowl, mix the flour with the eggs, the melted butter, the sugar, the yeast, the salt, the anisette, and vanilla to create a soft and elastic dough. Let it rest for a minimum of 2.5 hours in the fridge wrapped in a plastic film. The longer it rests, the softer the struffoli heart will be.
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STEP 2
Take the dough and make several little strings around the same thickness of your finger. Cut those strings into 2cm cubes and place them on a surface that has been pre-dusted with flour.
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Step 3
Fill a saucepan with oil and heat it at a high temperature (170°C, but do not let it begin to smoke. Then, begin to pour the cubes in to fry. Remove them with a skimmer. Drain them and let them dry on paper towels.
Heat 4 tablespoons of honey in another saucepan on medium heat and add the fried struffoli cubes in. Remove them, make a crown of them on a serving plate by sticking them together. Finally, with a piping bag, decorate with strings of Nutella® and serve.
Struffoli spread in the modern era because of Neapolitan convents, where nuns made them to offer as a Christmas present to noble families who had distinguished themselves with charitable acts. Who knows, maybe those families would have been even more generous if the nuns had offered them Struffoli with Nutella®.
