Turdilli Calabresi 

Turdilli is a typical Christmas cake of Calabria and like every year can not miss on the table of my family. What makes turdilli's irresistibly irresistible is their soft texture on the outside and crumbly and crunchy on the inside. Not to mention their enveloping and sweet scent, which draws on the imagination and takes you back in time to when you were care free and happy children!

First week of December and already you begin to taste the scents and flavors of Christmas. The Turdilli are, probably, among the typical Calabrian Christmas sweets, the oldest, therefore linked to the memories of many! More widespread in the Ionian areas of Calabria, it seems that they were born even before the advent of the Romans, to celebrate the winter solstice, as it was customary to do in all the regions overlooking the Mediterranean. Very similar to pignolata, turdilli's are characterized by the simplicity of ingredients and preparation and their striped processing recalls the spiral symbol of Life.

Ingredients

1600 kg flour

6 eggs (room temperature)

300 g sugar

300 g Martini white

1 1/2 lemon (juice)

1 baking powder for cakes

300 g sunflower oil for frying

sunflower oil to taste

To decorate

chestnut honey to taste

Preparation

Turdilli Calabresi is a family recipe with passion and taste. To prepare the Calabrian turdilli's, first put the sugar, liqueur and oil in a pot. Bring to the heat and over very low heat melt the sugar gently. At this point turn off and set aside. Proceed by working the eggs in a large bowl with a couple of teaspoons of lemon juice. Pour in the liquid mixture of sugar, oil and liqueur that in the meantime will have cooled. Mix everything and add the sifted flour together with the baking powder several times. Knead the ingredients with your hands until you get a firm and compact dough, if you want you can transfer to a lightly floured work surface. Then take some of the dough and form a sausage. Cut it into not too large and pass each piece on the teeth of a fork, on a small cutting board, to give it the typical lines of gnocchi. Place the freshly made turdilli's on a linen cloth and proceed in the same way with the remaining dough. Given the shape, put on the heat a non-stick pan with plenty of seed oil. As soon as the oil is hot, fry the cakes a little at a time. They are ready when they have taken on a beautiful golden yellow color on both sides. Remove from heat with a slotted spoon and place the turdilli's on absorbent paper to lose any residual oil. At this point let them rest for 12 hours before polishing them with honey. Put in a large pan a cup of water and two tablespoons of chestnut honey, as soon as a foam begins to form, dip the turdilli's. Stir gently with a wooden spoon for a few minutes. They can be removed when there is no trace of the liquid mixture in the pan. Place the turdilli's wrapped in honey on a serving plate and enjoy all the good of the Calabrian tradition.