Loukoumades

A wet yeast batter dropped into hot oil, where the batter is too loose to handle and that is exactly right.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains honey.

Ingredients

For the batter

• 350 g plain flour
• 7 g fast-action yeast
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 400 ml warm water
• 1 tablespoon cornflour
• 1.5 litres flavourless oil, for frying

To finish

• 250 g honey
• 80 ml water
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• ground cinnamon
• 100 g walnuts, crushed

Method

1. THE BATTER IS TOO LOOSE TO HANDLE AND THAT IS CORRECT. It should pour off a spoon in a thick ribbon, closer to a pancake batter than a dough, and anyone who tightens it to something shapeable will get heavy balls with a dense middle. The looseness is what lets them puff hollow.
2. SO THEY ARE SHAPED WITH A WET HAND AND A SPOON, not rolled. A fistful squeezed so a ball rises between thumb and forefinger, scooped off with a wet teaspoon and dropped straight in. Keep a bowl of water beside the pan and wet both constantly; dry hands and the batter welds to them.
3. Yeast and sugar whisked into the warm water, left 10 minutes until frothy.
4. Flour, cornflour and salt whisked in until completely smooth. It will be very wet.
5. Covered and left somewhere warm 90 minutes, until risen, domed and covered in bubbles. Do NOT knock it back; the air in it is the texture.
6. Syrup: honey, water and lemon juice warmed together until runny, then kept warm but not hot.
7. Oil to 175C. Too cool and they soak and go greasy; too hot and the outside sets before the inside has risen, giving a raw middle.
8. Six or seven at a time, no more -- each one drops the oil temperature and a crowded pan never recovers.
9. They sink, then rise. TURNED CONSTANTLY once they float, with a slotted spoon, 3 to 4 minutes until deep gold all over and hollow-sounding when tapped against the spoon.
10. Drained briefly on a rack, not paper.
11. DIPPED IN THE WARM SYRUP WHILE STILL HOT, a few seconds only, turned, and lifted out. Left to sit in syrup they go flat and sweet right through.
12. Piled up, cinnamon and walnuts over, and eaten within minutes. There is no version of these that keeps.

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 Greece · All recipes