Page 149 - FLIPBOOK NEW

STRUFOLI - ITALIAN HONEY BALLS

Ingredients
6 eggs
4 ½ cups flour
4 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup vetetable oil
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon white vinegar
4 tablespoons rye whiskey (optional)

COATING:
2 cups honey
1/2 cup sugar
colored sprinkles
candied fruit cherries (optional)

Instructions
Beat eggs lightly with an electric mixer.
Add sugar, vanilla, oil, rye whiskey, vinegar and mix thoroughly with electric mixer. Add
2 cups flour and 4 teaspoons baking powder to bowl as it is mixing. Shut o mixer. Add
2 cups of flour by hand. Put dough on floured counter top or board. Add 1/2 cup flour as
you knead dough until it is not sticky. Put dough in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
Dough can be refrigerated over night.
Once you remove dough from fridge, cut into 3 sections or balls. Roll out each small

piece of dough to 3/8 of an inch by 10 inches long. Use a sharp, long handled knife to cut
into 1/2 inch strips. Fry the dough in the vegetable oil using an electric frying pan or
regular frying pan. Cut each strip of dough into small pieces about 1/4 to 1/2 inch square.
Put into hot vegetable oil. Fry until golden brown. Use a slotted spoon to remove balls
from hot oil. Place on brown paper bags to drain and dry. Once all balls are dry and cool,
put honey and sugar in a large saucepan. Mix and bring to a low boil and cook for a few
minutes. Put balls into honey mixture and coat balls using a wooden spoon. Use the
slotted spoon to remove ball out of the pot and put on plates. Add candied fruit and top
with colored sprinkles. Makes approximately 4 dinner size plates .

This recipe is from Virginia Mazzola. She made this every year for Christmas. She would
put the honey balls on small plates and give them out to the family. She would also put
out a large plate of these honey balls at the Christmas celebration for the family to enjoy.
Her son Joseph Mazzola continued the Christmas tradition and then her grandson,
Frederick Ronald Wright, my husband, carried on the baking tradition.

Before I knew Ron, every late Christmas Eve, my family would go over to Mattie and
Frank LaPorta, our next door neighbors, for an Italian feast. These balls were always part
of the dessert as well.

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