Struffoli, also known as Italian Honey Balls, is a traditional dessert for a lot of Italian-American families. Let's make this dessert inclusive with a gluten-free, corn-free recipe!
Traditions are such a special thing to hold onto, especially holiday traditions. For our family, many of our traditions were food-related: Chinese food on New Year's Eve, Breakfast for Dinner on Birthdays, Pizza on Halloween, and so on. Christmas always came with its own slew of food traditions, such as switching out the seven fishes or seven appetizers on Christmas Eve to accommodate Amanda's shellfish allergy and having ravioli and manicotti on Christmas Day.
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One Christmas treat that always remained a tradition was making homemade struffoli.
The girls and I would pick a day in December to wake up early, have a quick breakfast, and then get to work making the dough. Once the dough was made, we would create stations. The girls would roll out and cut the dough, while I would fry it. In typical MacGregor Girls fashion, music would be playing (for this occasion, it would be Christmas music) and our cups would be filled with coffee.
We wanted to keep this tradition alive, so Amanda and I got to work on figuring out how to create a gluten-free, corn-free version of my struffoli recipe.
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What is Struffoli?
Struffoli is an Italian dish of small deep-fried sweet dough balls that are covered in honey and usually decorated with multicolored sprinkles. The dough balls are about the size of marbles. When fried, the texture is crunchy on the outside and light on the inside. After being mixed with honey, you can serve as a mound or form the struffoli into the shape of a wreath.
What changes did we make?
I have seen many versions of struffoli recipes, where each one, the ingredients vary. My original recipe only has 6 ingredients, making it very easy to make minimal substitutions to make it friendly for Amanda. Here are some of the switches we made:
All-Purpose Flour for All-Purpose Gluten-Free Flour: we used The Greater Knead's all-purpose gluten-free flour blend.
Baking powder for corn-free baking powder: we used Otto's Baking Powder which is corn-free.
Butter for Palm Shortening: you can also use dairy-free butter if you have a safe one you can have.
Vodka for a safe vodka or tequila: we used Circo Vodka since the brand makes its vodka from grapes rather than potatoes. If you don't have a safe vodka, try opting for tequila made from 100% agave. Preferably, a clear liquor.
Sprinkles for all-natural sprinkles: we used Supernatural Rainbow Softies Sprinkles.
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Momma Mac's Cooking Corner
Gluten-Free Struffoli
Ingredients
For the Dough:
1 & ½ cups all-purpose gluten-free flour, plus extra for dusting
⅓ cups sugar
½ teaspoon corn-free baking powder
½ teaspoon palm shortening
pinch of salt
2 eggs
1 shot glass of vodka or tequila
For Cooking:
Baking sheet
Parchment paper
Mixing bowls
Frying pot
Oil, for frying (we use olive or avocado oil)
For Assembly:
Honey
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Directions
Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, add all the dough ingredients and fold with a fork until you form a dough. Dust extra flour if the dough is too sticky to handle. When the fork is no longer doing the trick with combining, start kneading the dough in the bowl with your hands.
On a flat surface or cutting board, dust the surface with flour. Start with small sections of the dough at a time. Roll out the dough into a long thin log shape and cut into about 2 cm size pieces. Lay the pieces on the baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Repeat until you use all the dough.
In a pot on the stove, add enough oil for frying and heat. In small batches, about 10 to 15 pieces at a time, add to the oil and cook until golden. Remove from the oil and add to a tray lined with paper towels or on a cooling rack to cool.
When finished and cooled, add all the cooked dough balls to a bowl and cover with honey and sprinkles.
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