Thursday, September 26, 2013

Struffoli Recipe - Italian Honey Balls

Struffoli Recipe
Italian Masterpiece


Making Italian dessert recipes are some of the things that build memories, especially if you involve your children in the process. Struffoli is one of those things that is very popular among Italian families around the Christmas holiday season. In fact, while I was growing up, I don’t remember a Christmas without it.  This Struffoli Recipe is easy to make, tasty and colorful. 


Italian Honey Balls, called Struffoli
Italian Honey Balls, called Struffoli

Once you make this Struffoli Recipe, the Struffoli will keep covered at room temperature for several days. Therefore it is an easy to make this Struffoli recipe the day before company comes over for family get togethers..

Honey also has numerous healthful qualities, so you need not feel guilty about this recipe. I prefer to use Grapeseed Oil. I like the way it works with this, but if I can’t get it, I use Safflower oil. I tend to try to steer away from Canola and Corn Oils… Not because they taste bad, but because I opt for a healthier alternative.

Let's get started with this Italian dessert, my Struffoli Recipe!


Ingredients For The Struffoli Recipe
  • 1 ½ cups of flour
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 ½ cups honey
  • Candied fruit and citrus peel
  • Multi-colored Nonpareils
  • Sliced Almonds
  • You will also need vegetable oil for Deep Frying

Directions For The Struffoli Recipe

  • Combine the flour and salt in a large bowl and set aside.
  • I use a Kitchen Aid Mixer for this with a dough hook. Beat the eggs with your mixer and add the flour/salt mixture while pulsing the mixer. Then, mix until a well blended dough forms.
  • Mix (knead) in you mixer a few minutes, until the dough is smooth. If the dough is sticky, add a little more flour.
  • Shape the dough into a ball and place it back into your mixing bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let it sit for about a half hour.
  • Divide the dough into 8 pieces. Roll one piece into a ½ inch diameter rope, using your hands.
  • Cut the rope into ½ inch sections
  • Heat up your oil in a fryer, (use a fry baby if you have one). Once heated up, fry up enough at a time as not to over crowd them while frying. It should take about 2 minutes to fry to a golden brown.
  • After all of the Struffoli are fried, set them aside and heat up the honey in a sauce pan until it starts to simmer.
  • Remove the honey from the heat and add the Struffoli to the pan and gently stir well to coat all of the Struffoli with the hot honey.
  • On your serving plate, pile up the Struffoli into a Struffoli mountain and decorate it with the nonpareils sliced almonds and candied fruit.

I hope you enjoyed making my Struffoli Recipe. This is a classic Italian dessert recipe that is loved by all ages. Check back for more authentic Italian recipes.  Happy Holidays!

Monday, September 23, 2013

Winexpert Chocolate Raspberry Port Wine Kit - A Yummy Experience

Winexpert Chocolate Raspberry Port Kit A Very Cool and Delicious Wine kit. 

UPDATE: Please check my new wine making website for more detail on wine making.   How To Make Homemade Wine

Winexpert is the leading manufacturer of Wine kits for folks, like me, who love to make their own wine. I made this kit last year, and was blown away by it's all around excellence. It was so good, I decided to make two this year...



This kit makes 30 of the small size port bottles, the 375ml.  The 750ml bottle is the standard size, so if you wanted to bottle in the standard bottles, you will only get 15 out of this kit.

Since this kit makes 3 gallons, I decided to make two of them, so that I can easily work with a 6 gallon carboy.   If  you don't have a 3 gallon carboy and want to make this kit, you may want to get a 3 gallon carboy if you plan on making only one.

So, follow along with me while I make it. Here is the video I made of the first part, called Primary Fermentation...



In the next step in making this wine kit, sugar is added to bump up the ABV.

After that, we are up what wine makers call Secondary Fermentation.

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

DIY Herbal Remedies

Herbal Remedies have been used ever since there have been people on the planet.   I have been a student of herbs for about a decade.   I have decided to share some of what I learned with a few videos I posted on YouTube.  

Before I continue, I want to post a small disclaimer:

With that out of the way, I thought it would be nice to post some links to they YouTube videos I have made.   I hope you enjoy these and that they help you and your loved ones.










I am a student of HerbMentor.com.   Check out that site if you want to learn in an online format...  It works on a subscription basis.   I am not affiliated with them, other than being a member, but I get a lot out of their site and wanted to share the love..   

I know this isn't an Italian Recipe, but since I am Italian and I am making it, perhaps it could be!    Anyhow, enjoy.

Friday, September 6, 2013

Diamanti Milk Chocolate Strawberry Port Wine Kit - Finishing the Kit



UPDATE: Please check my new wine making website for more detail on wine making.   How To Make Homemade Wine
I have to say that this wine kit came out excellent.   I am really enjoying this kit and I am loving Amazon for offering it...

The sad thing about this kit is that the directions are very very very poor.   So, if you get this kit, please refer to my directions, as I made it in the videos I posted on YouTube.

All in all, I think this wine kit is supposed to compete with the Winexpert Chocolate Raspberry Port.  The C. R. P. is a gold medal winning wine kit.    The Diamanti Milk Chocolate Strawberry Port, while not made by Winexpert, is a very nice alternative, at a very reasonable price.

The Winexpert kit comes with an extra sugar pack that you add half way thru the fermentation process, to boost the alcohol content to about 18% when the wine is finished.   Ports usually have a higher alcohol content, by nature.    The Diamanti kit, on the other hand, does not add a sugar pack for this purpose, so the finished wine would be around 14.5%.   I was toying with the idea of adding a simple syrup to the wine half-way thru, but opted to just add a cup and a half of brandy to kick up the alcohol content.  The results are excellent.

To describe the taste, it is not overly sweet, but tastes like a Strawberry that has been dipped in a high quality gourmet chocolate.   Very nice as an after dinner dessert wine.

I ended up with 25 half sized bottles, and an extra quart of wine, not to mention the wine I drank while in the, ehhh, Research and Development, yeah that's it, part of the wine making process.

The kit can be found here:



The video series is here:



All in all, this is a very delicious kit, and I would highly recommend it.   Please let me know how you make out, if you decide to make this one!


Thursday, September 5, 2013

Making Black Raspberry Wine from Homegrown Organic Raspberries


Hello Everyone!

I have been doing a lot of gardening and wine making this summer.  

One of this years projects is to make wine from the Black Jewel Raspberries that I have been growing in my back yard.   If you have been checking out my YouTube channel, I am sure you have been seeing them.   

So, after reading the description in a book I have on wine making, I decided to make the Raspberry wine , since the author said that it was his favorite wine, bar none.

This is the book I am referring to:



The recipe in the book was for one gallon, I just tripled the recipe, since I was intending to make 3 gallons of wine.   I just finished racking and I ended up with 4 gallons...

Here are the videos:







So, at this point in time, this is where I am up to in the process of making this wine.   Stay tuned to see how this progresses!