Okay so for this post I’m going to steal a page out of my wife’s book. She runs a baking blog, full of recipes and pictures of delicious things so today, it’s my turn and I’m going to talk about Italian honey balls, known in some parts as strufoli.
Every year, my brother and sister and I — along with our extended families — assemble for a holiday called Honey Ball Day (I know what you’re thinking but, no, it’s not exactly like that Seinfeld holiday of Festuvus.) It’s better because it involves eating sweet little honey balls. Of course, here’s the key difference between my baking post and my wife’s — I don’t actually do much baking. My brother and sister do that. I usually just lend an air of festivity to the goings-on and take photographs like the ones you see here.
But I am going to tell you how to make these honey balls in case you’re so inclined. According to my brother Bob, here’s the recipe:
3 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 tblspoons sugar
10 tablespoons of oil or 1/2lb of butter melted
Add some water to moisten dough
Mix dry ingredients and wet separately combine and knead dough.
Once you have the dough, you roll it out, cut it into little balls and deep fry those suckers. When brown, remove, drain the oil, let dry and then pour on the heated honey. Once you do that, you can call the kids in to pour on the sprinkles and voila, you’ve got more honey balls than you’ll know what to do with. Enjoy and Happy Honey Ball Day!
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- My nephew enjoying Honey Ball Day!
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- Putting on the red wrapping paper, making honey balls suitable for gift-giving!
That’s great, Paul. I enjoyed this post. Stufoli are a longtime tradition in my family. My Nonna Angelina made them every Christmas. My siblings, cousins and I loved them as kids. We now keep my Nonna’s tradition alive since she passed away. I am making them Friday night with my Mom. Thank you for sharing. Great photographs too! Classic Italiano.
Ah, good to know someone else is keeping up the traditions!