Directions

For the Cartellate Dough
1 In a small pot, heat slightly the orange juice, half cup sugar, cinnamon, and the oil. Heat only just enough to melt the sugar, and then set aside. Place flour and eggs in Kitchen Aid mixer bowl and pour part of the oil/orange juice mixture into the flour to get the consistency right. You want it to form a smooth dough, so pour the orange juice mixture slowly. The dough has to be between hard and soft.

2 Use the pasta roller attachment on your Kitchen Aid Mixer, and start feeding the dough in on Level 1 and Then roll a few times by shaping it into squares, folding, and feeding it through rollers until you hear a popping sound. Then, roll one time at each level 2 through 7; then roll twice on level 8. Lay the long piece of flattened dough onto the table, and cut with a ravioli cutter into 1-inch strips. Take the one-inch strip and pinch like bow ties all the way down the line forming little cups/bowls along the strip. Roll the strip into a loop to form Cartellate carnations by pinching the dough together randomly to stick the flower sections together. Place carnations onto a pizza tray and then move to the dining table to dry a bit.

3 Fry the carnations in canola or sunflower oil. Fry head side up then flip. Gently remove from the pot and place onto paper towels to let them drain.

For Honey Glaze Topping
4 Boil five cups of water with the 5 cups of sugar, cinnamon sticks and orange peels. In a separate pot mix 2 cups of honey mixed with 1 cup of sugar water from the first pot. Add more sugar water from pot #1 to the honey water pot #2 if needed. Note: Add sugar water slowly to desired glaze consistency: Basically 3 cups of sugar water to 2 cups of honey. You will use this second pot to dip the carnations into the honey syrup glaze.

5 Dip each fried carnation into the honey syrup glaze with the carnation floret side down first then up so the oil doesn’t fill the hollows. Remove the carnation from the honey pot and place on a pan to cool. Feel free to use tiny confetti sprinkles over the honey to make it festive. Enjoy!