Kadın Göbeği

A dimple is pressed into each ball with a wet finger before frying, and it survives the oil.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg, dairy (butter), dairy (clotted cream).

Ingredients

the dough

• 250 ml water
• 80 g butter
• 150 g plain flour
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• ½ teaspoon salt

the syrup

• 650 g caster sugar, for the syrup -- the pastries are lifted out of it and the surplus is not eaten
• 550 ml water
• juice of ½ lemon

to fry

• 1 litre sunflower oil

to serve

• clotted cream

Method

1. A DIMPLE IS PRESSED INTO EACH BALL WITH A WET FINGER BEFORE FRYING, AND IT SURVIVES THE OIL. A ball of choux dough is shaped between wet palms and then a fingertip, dipped in water, is pushed right down into the middle -- almost through -- leaving a deep crater. Fried gently, the pastry puffs around that crater but does not close it, and what comes out is a flattened ring with a well in the middle. The well is what holds the syrup and, later, a spoonful of cream, and it is the whole shape of the thing. A choux ball fried without the dimple inflates into a sphere and the piped, ridged pastry in this same batch is a different object again.
2. THE DIMPLE GOES ALMOST ALL THE WAY THROUGH. Timid, it closes up in the oil as the pastry expands. The finger should nearly meet the other side.
3. THEY GO INTO BARELY WARM OIL AND THE HEAT IS RAISED. The same slow start as any fried choux: cool oil lets the steam build and open the pastry before the shell sets, which is what makes the inside hollow and light. Into hot oil they seal, stay dense, and the dimple closes.
4. THEY ARE FRIED FOR A LONG TIME AND FLATTENED SLIGHTLY AS THEY GO. Fifteen to eighteen minutes, turning. They spread and flatten on their own into discs. Underfried, they deflate as soon as the syrup touches them.
5. THE LEMON JUICE IN THE DOUGH KEEPS THEM FROM BURSTING. A teaspoon. Without it, choux in oil splits and spits.
6. COLD PASTRY, COLD SYRUP, BRIEFLY. Fried, drained, cooled completely, then into cold syrup for two minutes and lifted out. Hot into hot gives something uniformly sodden and the well collapses.
7. THE CREAM GOES IN THE WELL AT THE TABLE. Not earlier -- it sits in syrup and loosens.
8. The syrup ingredients boiled 12 MINUTES and LEFT TO COOL COMPLETELY.
9. The water, butter and salt boiled; the flour tipped in at once and beaten over the heat 3 MINUTES.
10. Cooled 10 MINUTES, then the eggs beaten in one at a time, and the lemon juice.
11. Rolled into 20 balls between WET palms.
12. A WET FINGERTIP pushed RIGHT DOWN into the middle of each, ALMOST THROUGH, leaving a deep crater.
13. Lowered into COLD or barely warm oil in a deep pan.
14. THE HEAT TURNED ON to medium, and fried 15 to 18 MINUTES as the oil comes up, turning, until deep golden and flattened into discs.
15. Drained on a rack and COOLED COMPLETELY.
16. Put into the COLD syrup 2 MINUTES, then lifted out and the surplus syrup POURED OFF.
17. TESTED: the well should still be open and the inside hollow. A closed dimple means it was too shallow or the oil too hot.
18. A spoonful of clotted cream in each well at the table.

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 Turkey · All recipes