Recipe: Scalili, Scalilli, Scalille (Italian fried dough, honey glazed - 7 recipes)

SCALILI
Source: Per La Famiglia: Memories and Recipes of Southern Italian Home Cooking by Emily Richards

6 eggs (6)
1 1/2 tsp canola oil (7 mL)
1 tsp vanilla or anise extract (5 mL)
1/2 tsp baking powder (2 mL)
Pinch of salt (0.5 mL)
3 cups all-purpose flour (approx.), divided (750 mL)
6 cups canola oil (for frying) (1.5 L)
1 cup liquid honey (250 mL)
2 Tbsp coloured sprinkles (optional) (30 mL

In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, oil, vanilla, baking powder and salt until smooth. Stir in 2 1/2 cups (625 mL) of the flour until soft, but not sticky dough forms (you may need to add more).

Scrape dough onto floured work surface and gently knead dough, for about 10 minutes adding more flour as needed.

Using a small amount of dough each time, roll into a long 1/2-inch (1 cm) thin rope. Cut into 2-inch (5 cm) pieces. Snip the ends with scissors and continue with remaining dough.

In a deep fryer or large heavy pot half filled with oil and using deep fry thermometer, heat oil to 375 degrees F (190C). Carefully drop pieces a few at a time in oil and cook for about 3 minutes or until light golden and puffed. Remove to a paper towel-lined baking sheet and repeat with remaining pieces.

In a large saucepan, heat half of the honey until warm and very liquid. Stir in half of the scallili until coated then using a slotted spoon remove to a large platter. Top with sprinkles if desired. Repeat with remaining ingredients.

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SCALILLE

400 g all-purpose flour
4 eggs
20 ml olive oil
25 ml anise liqueur
4 g baking powder
a pinch of salt
honey
cake sprinkles

In a bowl crack the eggs and beat them with a fork. Add the sugar and whisk for a couple of minutes. Add now the oil, the anise liqueur, a pinch of salt and the baking powder and mix well.

Add just a little flour at the beginning and mix it. Add the rest of it and start kneading by hand using a floured board. Knead the dough for about 15 minutes.

Roll the dough into ropes and shape the Scalille. Wet with oil the grip of a wooden spoon. This prevents the dough from sticking.

Deep fry the Scalille in a deep pot and dry them on paper towels.

Melt some honey in large skillet and coat the Scalille with it. Use the cake sprinkles over the Scalille.

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SCALILLE (SCALIDDRE, SCALIDDRI, SCALILLI)

"Scalille, Scaliddre, Scaliddri, Scalilli, Scaliddi or Scalette, are a traditional sweet from Calabria. The term means, in the Calabrian dialect, "small stairs" ("piccole scale"), "ladders" ("scalette"), which, in a metaphorical sense, indicate the starting point, precisely the stairs, to undertake an ascending journey towards Jesus."

350 g of flour
4 eggs
2 half egg shells filled with extra virgin olive oil
1 egg shell half full of anise (liqueur)
2 tablespoons of sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon of baking powder
to taste extra virgin olive oil for frying
To garnish:
to taste of flower honey
to taste of mixed sugar sprinkles

Put the flour, eggs, oil, anise, sugar, cinnamon and yeast in a mixing bowl. Mix everything until you get a good soft and smooth dough.

Take a part of the dough, stretch it with your hands, making a rope of about 20-25 cm in length and wrap it around a wooden ladle, then, remove from the ladle and place on a tray. Proceed in this way with the remaining dough.

Dip the scalille in boiling oil, frying until golden brown; once cooked, drain and let cool.

Heat the honey in a saucepan, then add the sweets and mix with a spoon, so as to season the sweets with honey. Before serving, decorate as desired with sprinkles.

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CALABRIAN SCALILL

10 eggs (5 whole and 5 yolks)
9 or 10 tablespoons of sugar
1 glass of extra virgin olive oil
1 glass of cognac
1 sachet of yeast
flour to taste for a soft dough

Put all the ingredients in a bowl and slowly incorporate the flour until you get a soft dough. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes.

Cut the dough into pieces about 1 cm thick and roll them out until they reach about 35 cm. Equip yourself with a ladle on which to model the filament obtained and proceed with the classic shape of the scalille or obtaining small pine cones or even chunks.

Then heat sunflower oil and dip the ladles over medium heat. When they are golden, drain them and little by little pass them in hot honey melted in a pan over low heat. Turn them until they are "honeyed". If you prefer you can sprinkle them with a little cinnamon. They are super soft!

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SCALILLI

FOR THE DOUGH:
1 kg. flour;
6 whole eggs;
4 yolks;
10 cups of oil (I used the egg shell);
a handful of sugar;
2 sachets of Bertolini yeast;
1 glass of anise;
FOR THE TOPPING:
honey to taste
sprinkles

Prepare the flour and add all the ingredients. It must be a rather soft dough.

Form dough into many sticks the size of a finger, wrap them in a spiral around a piece of cane or a wooden ladle, remove them and wrap them with another stick of dough, so that the sweets take on an oval shape with the spiral in the center.

Fry in abundant boiling oil.

Once the frying is finished, in a large pot add honey and 1 or 2 tablespoons of water, heat over low heat and pass the scalilli a little at a time.

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SCALILLE

"typical Calabrian sweets fried and with chocolate icing, with aniseed or simply glaze with honey to suit your taste"

1 kg of flour 00
6 eggs
250 g of sugar
1 grated organic lemon zest
6 egg shells of aniseed liqueur
6 egg shells of seed oil
1 sachet of baking powder
1 liter of seed oil for frying
Ingredients for the chocolate glaze
350 g of dark chocolate
50 g of butter
100 ml of water
Ingredients for the aniseed glaze
550 g of powdered sugar
170 ml of aniseed liqueur

On a pastry board we arrange the flour mixed with the yeast and in the center pour the sugar, the eggs, the grated lemon peel, the aniseed liqueur and the seed oil using half an eggshell as a measuring cup. Of course, choose the largest shell. Mix all the ingredients, you will get a soft dough. Let the dough rest for 15 minutes.

Resume working the dough by cutting pieces of dough and kneading them forming rather small cylinders in circumference, as they swell during cooking. cut a piece of about 10/15 cm and give the shape of 8.

When you have formed all the cakes, put a pan on the stove and pour in the liter of seed oil. Heat the oil and when it is hot, fry the sweets a little at a time. When they are golden, remove them and put them to dry the excess oil on absorbent paper for food. When you have fried all the sweets, let them rest before filling them with the icing. You can prepare them one day before glazing them.

Prepare the chocolate glaze by putting a saucepan with water on the heat and on the saucepan put a metal container with the chopped chocolate and butter, let them melt in a bain-marie. When it is almost dissolved, add the water, stirring with a small spoon. Glaze a part of the scalille and put them to dry on a dripping pan covered with parchment paper. Prepare the aniseed glaze by pouring the icing sugar and liqueur into a bowl. We mix the two ingredients with a fork or a whisk by hand until it becomes homogeneous without lumps. We glaze the scalille and put it to dry in a dripping pan covered with parchment paper. When they are dry, transfer the scalillae to a serving dish.

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CALABRIAN SCALILLE WITH HONEY
Ancient recipe

350 gr flour 0
4 eggs
a pinch of salt
modified recipe
450 gr flour 0
4 eggs
2 tablespoons of sugar
2 tablespoons of anise
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 pinch of salt
1 pinch of baking powder
500 ml of oil for frying (Peanuts), lard can also be used
garnish
300 grams of honey
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 pinch of cinnamon
colored sprinkles

Break the eggs into a bowl, add the sugar, anise, oil, salt and yeast, beat well with a fork or hand whisk. When everything is mixed, pour the flour adding it a little at a time, pass the dough on a pastry board and continue to work with your hands (adjust with the flour if you need more or if it should be too much), the dough must be soft, elastic and not sticky, work it for about 15 minutes.

At this point divide the dough into many small pieces that must be rolled out like breadsticks about 20/25 cm long and twist them around a floured stick to prevent the dough from sticking (you can use the handle of a wooden spoon), close them to keep them from opening, squeezing the ends a little, remove them and put them aside waiting to be fried.

Heat the oil and fry a few at a time, drain the excess grease on kitchen paper.

Pour the honey into a large pan and when it starts to boil pass the scalille into it, being careful not to let them break and soak them well, garnish as desired with colored sprinkles or sprinkles, sprinkle with a little sugar mixed with cinnamon. The processing is the same both for the recipe of eggs and flour only and for the modern recipe.