Pignolata

Small fried dough knots turned in warm honey and piled into a cone.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg, honey.

Ingredients

• 400 g plain flour
• 4 eggs
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• zest of 1 orange
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 litre sunflower oil, for deep frying, which is poured off
• 350 g honey
• coloured sprinkles, to finish

Method

1. Make a firm dough with the flour, eggs, oil, zest and salt. Knead 10 minutes and rest it 30.
2. Roll ropes the thickness of a pencil and cut them into 1 cm pieces. Small: they swell in the oil and a large one stays raw inside.
3. DEEP FRY at 170C in small batches for 2 minutes until puffed and gold. Drain on a rack.
4. Warm the honey until it flows but does not boil. ABOVE ABOUT 120C IT SETS HARD AS IT COOLS and the whole pile becomes one solid lump.
5. Turn the fried pieces through the warm honey in a wide bowl until every one is coated.
6. PILE THEM INTO A CONE ON A PLATE WHILE STILL WARM, pressing gently. The honey glues them as it cools and the shape is how the sweet is recognised.
7. Scatter sprinkles and leave it an hour to set. Pour the frying oil off once cooled.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Italy · All recipes