Name: Honey Walnut Cookie Sticks (Sfratti)
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 95 min
Ingredients: ½ recipe homemade pie crust1; 2 cups (240g) finely chopped walnuts2; zest of one orange3; 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon; ⅙ teaspoon ground cloves; ⅔ cup (255g) honey

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Buttery, flaky pie crust surrounds a rich, spiced honey walnut filling in these traditional Italian cookies. This recipe is a family heirloom with deep roots and a flavor that tastes as special as it feels.

Honey walnut cookie stick slices (sfratti) on a surface.

THIS IS THE MOST SENTIMENTAL RECIPE ON MY SITE

It’s funny– we “food bloggers,” as we were once called when our internet-only jobs were still a novelty, used to get teased for sharing personal stories before the recipe. And honestly, that’s just how we wrote. As our roles evolved into “content creators” and “recipe developers,” that storytelling mostly disappeared.

But this post needs it. If you’re not into the personal side of this recipe, feel free to jump to the ingredients or straight to the recipe card– though I strongly encourage reading the ingredients and instructions, since this one is a bit more involved than my typical bakes.

Back in 2015, my dad taught me how to make this cookie (here’s the post I made on my Instagram to commemorate that day). It came to America from Italy with my paternal great-grandmother, who passed it down to my grandmother (the Eva behind this Italian anise bread and this Parmesan parsley bread). And then, my dad taught himself to make it because, of course, there was never a written recipe from those original Italian women (shocker).

The weekend that he taught me, I had just found out I was pregnant with our first son. We weren’t ready to share the news yet, and my dad had a small cold, but he was determined to teach me anyway.

A couple of weeks later, we finally shared our long-hoped-for pregnancy with my parents… And also learned my dad had lung cancer (that small cold never went away).

Honey walnut cookie stick slices (sfratti) on a plate.

Honey walnut cookie stick slices (sfratti) on a cooling rack.

He beat that cancer, getting the all-clear just a month before our son was born. Two years later we welcomed another little boy, and my dad got far more time with his grandsons than we ever expected before he passed in the summer of 2025 from a resurgence of the cancer he chose, with our unwavering support, not to treat.

The ironic part? I put these cookies on my content calendar long before he got sick again– a full-circle moment, ten years later. I was excited to make them entirely on my own for the first time and couldn’t wait for him to try them.

That didn’t happen, of course, but this updated recipe has the exact bones of his, scaled down to a reasonable batch size (the original yielded an ungodly amount of cookies). It reflects ten years of baking experience, teaching others the way he taught me, and a recipe that truly feels like an heirloom.

I’ve rephotographed the cookies, but you’ll still see a few of the original photos with his hands in them alongside the very aggressive watermark I used to slap on everything (cringe). I hope you can feel my (and my dad’s) love for this recipe through the instructions and photos.

If you’ve read this far, thank you for helping me honor my dad’s memory. I hope this recipe finds its way into your kitchen– and eat one in memory of Ron for me, would ya?

THE (BRIEF) HISTORY OF SFRATTI

Before we get to the modern-day version of this cookie, it’s worth acknowledging its roots, because they’re not Italian-American at all, but Jewish. In the 1600s, Jewish communities throughout Italy, especially in Rome, were forced from their homes by the Medici rulers.

Many resettled in the small mountain town of Pitigliano, where they rebuilt their community, establishing a synagogue and bakeries so they could keep making the breads and pastries central to their culture. From that resilience came sfratti: simple stick-shaped pastries filled with walnuts, cinnamon, honey, and orange peel.

The name sfratti comes from sfratto, meaning “eviction,” and the shape symbolizes the wooden staffs authorities used to knock on doors and, according to the story, to force Jewish families from their homes. Over time, these honey-walnut cookie sticks became beloved by non-Jewish Italians as well and eventually a staple of the Italian Christmas season.

So yes– while these little cookie sticks have Jewish origins, they also have Italian evolution, and now a place in my own family’s story and possibly yours. How’s that for multi-cultural/generational?

SFRATTI INGREDIENTS

For as involved as the process is for making these cookies, the ingredient list is very short.

Aerial photo of ingredients to make honey walnut cookie sticks (sfratti) with text overlay labeling each ingredient.

Here is what you’ll need and why:

PIE DOUGH: you can use homemade or store-bought, but I will, of course, always encourage you to use homemade! My pie crust recipe makes two rounds, and the store-bought version usually comes with two as well. You’ll only need one pie dough round for this recipe, so you can either cut my recipe in half or save the second disc (or second premade dough) for another pie. Or pie crust cookies!

WALNUTS: this is the main ingredient for the filling. You’ll want finely chopped walnuts, which I purchase as such from the get-go. I find that hand chopping the nuts doesn’t get them fine enough, and using my nut chopper makes them too fine. Use your preference or what you can find!

ORANGE ZEST: just like in my pecan pie tarts, orange/walnut/spices go so well together. My dad used jarred zest for this recipe as well as fresh orange zest, and both yield amazing flavor. Again, use your preference or what you have on hand.

GROUND CINNAMON & CLOVES: these spices are the perfect complement to the honey and the walnuts (and the orange!). If you don’t like cloves, you can omit them, but I strongly urge you to keep them in. They’re subtle and there are lots of other flavors going on that marry well with it.

HONEY: this is the glue that holds everything together. We have never used raw honey for this recipe, so the timing may be off if you use that. You’ll want regular bottled/jarred honey for these cookies.

STEP-BY-STEP WITH photos: HOW TO MAKE HONEY WALNUT COOKIE STICKS

Before you start this recipe, make sure your pie dough is fully chilled if you’ve made it from scratch or thawed completely if you’re using premade dough.

I’ve also included a video in the recipe card that I encourage you to watch before you tackle this recipe. Read this instruction list below, take in all the photos, watch the video, then read through the recipe card so you are the most prepared as possible to succeed on the first try!

Prepare the pie dough: start my rolling a disc of pie dough out into a square at least 10″ but ideally 12″ on each side. Use a knife or pizza cutter to split the dough in half to make two rectangles approximately 6″ by 12″ (or whatever size your square is). Let this dough chill in the refrigerator until you need it and while you make the filling of the recipe.

Someone is slicing a square of pie dough in half with a pizza cutter.

Combine the filling ingredients: the walnuts and the spices should be ready to go before you start on cooking the honey in the next step. This will make the work flow much more easily!

A bowl of walnuts with spices and orange zest in it that someone is stirring with a spoon.

Boil the honey: you’ll do this in a saucepan over high heat. Be careful as the boiling honey will foam up, but it will not overflow the pan. When the honey is fully boiling and foamed up, add the nut mixture and reduce the temperature to medium heat.

Someone is pouring honey into a saucepan.

Cook the mixture: set a timer for 5 minutes, then use a spatula or wooden spoon to stir the mixture constantly while it cooks. The mixture may be simmering but you should not let it come to a boil again.

A saucepan of the filling for honey walnut cookie sticks that someone is stirring with a spatula.

Watch for the mixture to be done: as you stir, the mixture will start to thicken. Make a line through the mixture with your spatular or spoon and watch the honey liquefy into the trail. As the mixture thickens, this liquefying will happen much more slowly, which is what you want.

Allow the mixture to cool: when the 5 minutes are up and your mixture is behaving the way you want it to, remove it from the heat and allow it to cool for 30 minutes.

Assemble the cookie sticks: when the mixture has cooled, preheat the oven and remove the chilled pie dough from the refrigerator. Working with the long side of one of the rectangles, line the edge of the rectangle with about half of the filling mixture in the shape of a log that will sit inside the dough once rolled up. Leave about ½” border around the ends and the edge of the dough.

Someone is spooning honey walnut cookie stick filling onto a pie dough.

Honey walnut cookie stick filling on a pie dough.

Roll into logs: lightly flour your hands, then press the filling together to make a cohesive log. It will be jaggy, but try to press spaces together so there are no gaps in the filling. Carefully roll the crust over the log, using your hands to press any filling or crust back together as you go. Be patient and go slowly! Roll the log all the way to the opposite end of the rectangle, then press the excess dough on the sides closed with your fingers to encase the log. Repeat with the second rectangle and remaining filling.

Someone is rolling up a honey walnut cookie stick.

A honey walnut cookie stick on a baking sheet.

Bake: you’ll bake these sfratti until the crust just starts to turn golden. They will need to cool completely before you can slice and enjoy them (waiting is the hardest part of the whole thing!).

Aerial photo of honey walnut cookie stick slices (sfratti) on a surface.

Let me just tell you that this cookie is unlike any other cookie you’ve ever had or made. Although it starts out a bit like baklava, the nuts on the inside of the cookie sticks are a bit more solid and crunchier, so it’s slightly less of a “sticky” nut mixture (though still sticky in its own kind of glorious way) and more a cohesive slice.

The pie crust, especially if you use my scratch recipe, is flaky and messy (in the best way possible) and if I say so myself, sfratti is perfect for dipping into coffee. In fact, eating your sfratti with coffee is a must, as Ron’s favorite beverage was black coffee at the frequency of all day long.

In the text of the original 2015 version of this post, I wrote: “Passed down recipes are the best kind, and I hope to become a sfratti pro so these cookies will last forever in the DeAngelis/April family.”

I think I’ve done my dad (and grandmother and great-grandmother!) proud. I even had a serious nostalgic and grief-stricken moment when I tasted the first cookie. So it would truly be an honor for you to make this recipe and an even bigger one for you to add it to your family’s traditions.

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