Zalabiyeh

A poured batter rather than a dough, which is what separates it from the squeezed fritters it resembles.

Vegan.

Ingredients

the batter

• 350 g plain flour
• 50 g cornflour
• 550 ml warm water
• 7 g fast-action dried yeast
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt

the syrup

• 550 g caster sugar, for the syrup -- the fritters are lifted out of it and the surplus is not eaten
• 450 ml water
• juice of ½ lemon
• 1 tablespoon orange blossom water

to fry

• 1 litre sunflower oil

to finish

• 3 tablespoons pistachios, ground

Method

1. IT IS A POURED BATTER RATHER THAN A DOUGH, which is what separates it from the squeezed fritters it resembles. The mixture is thin enough to pour from a jug -- about the consistency of double cream -- and it is poured into the hot oil in a thin stream, moved in loops and spirals so it sets as an open lacy tangle. The fritters made from a yeasted dough are squeezed off between thumb and forefinger into dense round balls; these are irregular, hollow and crisp, with far more surface for the syrup to cling to. Same oil, same syrup, two different objects, and the batter is the dividing line.
2. IT IS POURED THROUGH SOMETHING WITH A SMALL HOLE. A jug with a narrow lip, a piping bag with a plain nozzle, or a squeeze bottle. The stream has to be thin and controlled -- poured from a wide jug it lands as a single blob and fries into a pancake.
3. THE BATTER IS RISEN UNTIL IT IS VISIBLY BUBBLING. An hour and a half, until the surface is domed and covered in bubbles. The gas is what makes the fritter hollow rather than solid, and an underproved batter gives something dense that absorbs oil.
4. THE CORNFLOUR IS WHAT KEEPS IT CRISP. Fifty grams in four hundred. Wheat flour alone gives a fritter that is crisp for five minutes and chewy after; the cornflour keeps it brittle for an hour, which matters because these then go into syrup.
5. THE OIL IS AT 180°C AND THEY ARE TURNED ONCE. Hot. The lacy shape has to set on contact, which only high heat does -- in cooler oil the stream sinks and merges into a lump before it firms. Two minutes, turned once, to a deep gold.
6. HOT FRITTER INTO COOL SYRUP, FOR SECONDS ONLY. The syrup made first and cooled. In and out within about ten seconds, then onto a rack with the surplus poured off. An open lacy fritter takes up syrup extremely fast and will go sodden in half a minute.
7. THEY ARE EATEN THE SAME HOUR. There is no way to keep them: the structure that makes them good is also what makes them collapse.
8. The flour, cornflour, yeast, sugar and salt whisked with the warm water to a THIN batter, about the consistency of double cream.
9. Covered and risen 1 HOUR 30 MINUTES, until DOMED and VISIBLY BUBBLING.
10. The syrup ingredients boiled 10 MINUTES, the blossom water stirred in off the heat, and LEFT TO COOL.
11. The oil heated to 180°C.
12. The batter poured through a NARROW LIP or piping nozzle in a THIN STREAM, moved in loops and spirals so it sets as an open lacy tangle.
13. Fried 2 MINUTES, TURNED ONCE, to a deep gold.
14. Lifted straight into the COOL syrup for about 10 SECONDS, then onto a rack and the surplus syrup POURED OFF.
15. TESTED: the fritter should be open and lacy and still crisp after syruping. A dense lump means the batter was poured too thick or the oil was cool.
16. Scattered with ground pistachios and eaten within the hour.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Egypt · All recipes