Bangalore. Here’s wishing a Joyous Christmas Season to all in India, from us: Pure Flour from Europe! Most Indians–regardless of their religion– enjoy the celebration of Christmas and all the delicious things to eat. There is nothing more unifying than a festive table meant for all!
There are many similarities between Indian Christmas and European Christmas–especially it being the season of feasting. The sweetness of the treats, the bright colours of the decorations. The embrace of the season’s indulgences!
In Europe and Italy, home of Pure Flour from Europe, Christmas is a time of cold, damp weather (and warming up over something delicious), a time of shopping for special gifts (many edible), and a time of special music such as hymns, carols, and the bagpipe-playing shepherds who come down from the hills just for this time of year. You can often find the bagpiping shepherds in town centres, villages, or even favourite restaurants where they may go door to door, entertaining with their music at each stop along the way.
All year Europeans and Italians look forward to the gathering of family and friends, over a feasting table, sampling traditional specialities of the celebration. What better way to celebrate life?
The fresh pasta! Could Italians in particular celebrate the holiday without pasta? For exquisite pasta, worthy of the time and effort you put into it: you must of course use the best flour. Italians only use Pure Flour from Europe–for the tender, sensuous, silky pasta dishes that is Italy’s gift to the world.
And the little treats to offer guests or have for tea, that give so much pleasure all year long are especially so at Christmas. Like India, Italy has a wide array of sweet holiday treats. Here are a few, all beautiful examples of how when simple grains of wheat are transformed into a pure flour, they become the basis of so many cakes, pastries, biscuits and other sweet treats.
Panettone, of course: the tender sweet fluffy cake-bread, studded with preserved fruits and perfumed with delightful essences. Pandoro, a tender buttery cake, very tall, and sprinkled with icing sugar. Mostaccioli, spice-scented chocolate biscuits iced in a dark chocolate glaze. There are citrus scented, ring-shaped biscuits and cakes, crisp almond biscuits to dip in wine, and brutta ma buono: “ugly but good”, little brown chunks that don’t look like much but are oh so delicious. There are fried cakes such as cartellate, the folds of their flower-like shapes meant to represent the swaddling clothing of Baby Jesus.
And then: there are struffoli. Crisp little fried balls of dough, cloaked in sweetness, lavished with brightly coloured candied fruit and sugar sprinkles: the taste of an Italian Christmas (and would be a great treat for an Indian Christmas as well).
So whether you are in Europe, Italy, or India, pour yourself a cozy warm drink, help yourself to a delicious tidbit (or two), and enjoy the festive season. And as Christmas gradually fades away, the last gift opened, the last plate of sweets eaten, the world says goodbye to 2021 and gets ready to greet the new year. It’s been delicious! And we know the new year will be too!
Of course, when you are preparing your specialities you want to use the best ingredients: when a recipe is based on flour, you need a flour that is reliable, trustworthy, and will produce the texture and qualities you need (and deserve!) always, but especially this holiday season. Pure Flour from Europe.
Here is our Christmas gift to you: our recipe for Struffoli.
Preparation time: 2 hours
Difficulty: moderate
Serves: 8-10 portions
Ingredients
300 g Italian type 00 flour (or flour for cakes) 3 medium eggs 30 g sugar
30 g butter 3 g salt grated zest of 1 orange, 1 lemon, and 1 mandarin
To fry
1 lt peanut oil
To garnish
20 g coloured sugar ball sprinkles
40 g candied citron, or if unavailable, any other candied citrus peel
40 g candied orange 300 g honey
Method
Put the flour, sugar, butter cut into small pieces and eggs into large bowl.
Wash and dry the lemon, orange and mandarin, and grate their zest into the mixture. Add the salt and start kneading until all the ingredients are well-combined. Transfer the dough to a well-floured work surface and knead to form a loaf of dough. Wrap it in cling film and let it rest for at least an hour in the refrigerator.
After the resting time, divide the dough into 8 small pieces; work each piece on a pastry board to obtain a 1 cm diameter roll or stick from each piece. Cut the stick into 1 cm thick pieces and place them on a lightly floured cloth trying not to overlap them so that they do not stick together.
When you have finished, pour the peanut oil into a pan and bring it to 170C° (be careful not to bring it over 175C°). Sift the struffoli so they lose any excess flour and fry them a few at a time so as not to drastically lower the temperature of the oil.
When the struffoli are slightly golden, drain them with a slotted spoon and place them on a plate lined with absorbent kitchen paper. Continue until you finish frying all the dough pieces.
Combine the struffoli with the honey, as well as the candied citron and orange cut into small cubes and toss to mix well.
Arrange the struffoli on a plate, in a pile or in a crown: to form a crown, place a jar or bottle in the centre of the plate. Arrange the struffoli all around, leave them for an hour and then gently remove the jar. Finish the preparation by garnishing with the sugar ball sprinkles.
Enjoy. It’s from Europe!
