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    Struffoli wreath

    by Marina Filippelli 

    • Preparation time: 30 minutes + resting and cooling
    • Cooking time: 15 minutes
    • Total time: 45 minutes + resting and cooling

    Serves: 8 - 10

    Ingredients

    350g self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting if needed
    40g icing sugar, sifted
    Pinch of salt
    45g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
    1 tbsp Pernod or other anise-flavoured spirit
    1 orange, zest
    1 lemon, zest
    3 British Blacktail Medium Free Range Eggs, lightly beaten
    Sunflower oil, for deep frying
    250g clear honey
    2 tbsp caster sugar
    2 tbsp mixed peel
    2 tbsp hundreds and thousands or other sprinkles
    A little edible gold leaf for sparkle, optional

    Method

    1. Put the flour, icing sugar and salt in a large bowl and stir with a wooden spoon to combine. Add the melted butter, Pernod and citrus zests and stir again, until the mixture resembles wet sand. Make a well in the centre, pour in the eggs and stir them, drawing in the mixture as you go. Once it’s too thick to stir, knead in the remaining mixture with your hands.

    2. Tip the dough onto a clean work surface and knead for 3-4 minutes until smooth. Form into a ball, wrap and set aside in a cool part of the kitchen for 30 minutes.

    3. Once rested, cut the dough into 8 pieces. Working with one piece at a time, roll the dough into a long rope, about 1cm thick. Repeat with the remaining dough. If it sticks to the surface, dust lightly with flour, but the dough should be firm enough not to stick. Cut the ropes into 1cm pieces, the size of small marbles.

    4. Take a medium, heavy-based pan and pour in enough oil to half-fill it. Heat over a high heat until a dough marble dropped into the oil turns golden in 1 minute. Cook in batches, by placing a layer of struffoli onto a large metal slotted spoon and lowering them into the oil. Fry for about 1 minute until golden, then lift them with the same spoon onto a tray lined with kitchen paper. Repeat until all the struffoli have been fried. Leave to cool completely.

    5. Heat the honey in a large frying pan over a low heat, until it looks really runny and loose. Stir in the caster sugar and once you can see the sugar has dissolved, take off the heat and add the struffoli. Fold through gently until they are all coated in honey. Scatter in the mixed peel and fold again until well combined.

    6. Place a lightly oiled upturned glass in the centre of a serving plate or cake stand. Use a spoon to pile the struffoli in a wreath around the glass. You might need to get in there with your hands to help (wet them slightly first to prevent the honeyed struffoli sticking to them). Finish with a sprinkling of hundreds and thousands, then wait for the struffoli to cool completely before lifting out the glass from the centre of the wreath. Decorate with a little gold leaf, if using, and serve with two large spoons to help scoop up the little struffoli balls.

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    Cook’s tip
    The struffoli can be made and fried in advance and stored in an airtight container for a day or two. Coat them in honey on the day you plan to eat them.

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