Loukoumades
Jul 17th, 2008 | By Peter Minakis | Category: Dessert, Frying, Greek, Honey, How To, Nuts, Recipe, Snacks, Spices
What’s a birthday party without some dessert?
One of Greece’s best known sweets/ desserts/snacks/street foods has to be Loukoumades. I knew that offering these sweet fritters up for my guests would be memorable.
Every Greek has had them. Loukoumades are the Greeks’ answer to donuts and both are nowhere near in the vicinity of “health food”.
The first time I ate Loukoumades was during my introductory trip to Greece in 1974 at the Tottis cafe located at Thessaloniki’s Aristotelous Square.
Every Greek’s had them, every Greek wants them but not every Greek can make them (or bother to make them).
Loukoumades can be found throughout Greece and although many good Greek home cooks can make them, most settle for simply buying them as a treat during the evening “volta” or walk.
The recipe I have here uses shortening (Crisco) and as I said earlier, much like donuts…Loukoumades aren’t going to win any heart-healthy awards.
Each cuisine has it’s sinful delights and Loukoumades are one of Greece’s sweet pleasures. This recipe was retained from my mother, who used to volunteer at our parish’s Summer Greek Festival.
Greek festivals are held by Greek churches in the diaspora to help fund expansions, courses or for philanthropic aid. Live Greek music, folkloric dance and Greek food were all on offer for parishioners and neighboring non-Greeks.
This recipe was the one used by our parish, St. Nicholas Greek-Orthodox Church here in Toronto. For those of you who have had Loukoumades before will be satisfied in knowing these are just like the ones you may have bought while in Greece.
Loukoumades are a deep fried dough which are then dunked in syrup, followed by a sprinkled of ground walnuts and dusted with ground cinnamon.
They are eaten warm or room temperature and the outside is sticky from the syrup but the delight in eating Loukoumades comes from the crunch one gets from biting into the walnuts, penetrating the fritter and then getting a little burst of the syrup which has penetrated the inside.
Anyone interested in trying Loukoumades?
Loukoumades
For the Dough
5 cups of all-purpose flour
1/4 lb. Crisco shortening (room temp)
1 1/2 cups of orange juice
1 1/2 cups hot water
1/3 cup tepid water
1/3 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. active dry yeast
Syrup
1 cup of honey
2 cups of sugar
1 cup of water
Topping
Ground walnuts
Ground cinnamon
- Add the shortening to the flour in a large bowl and mix with your hands until the two ingredients become one. Set aside.
- In a pot, add your orange juice and 1 1/2 cups of hot water and mix together and set aside.
- In another bowl, add the tepid water, sugar and yeast and allow to rise for about 5 minutes.
- When the yeast has risen, add your orange juice/water mixture and then add your wet ingredients to the dry. Mix with your hands until incorporated into a wet dough. Set aside to rise for about two hours.
- Pre-heat your a large pot with vegetable oil (or a deep fryer) and you want the oil to reach approx. 350F. Set up a frying station of your bowl of Loukoumades batter, a glass with water and the fryer.
- Take a handful of dough in your palm and then it out onto a waiting spoon that’s been dunked in water, then drop it in the hot oil until golden brown. Fry off in batches until you’ve fried all your batter.
- Prepare the syrup by adding into a pot the honey, sugar and water and bring to a boil, then simmer for 5 minutes.
- Now dunk your Loukoumades into the hot syrup and douse them with syrup a few times before removing to a colander. Repeat until all your Loukoumades are dunked in the syrup.
- Plate your Loukoumades and then sprinkle some ground walnuts and ground cinnamon on top and serve warm.
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Who knew the Greeks made donuts? Sounds divine!
Oh I remember the Loukoumades clever technique! Wow, it was quite a feast since it needed 5 posts to fit in
They wouldn’t be half so good if they were heart healthy – I’m willing to throw caution to the wind to get me some of these. Yum!!!
yum
I definitely missed this one Peter while I was there:(
I think I ate these one night in Theologos when I was in Greece. It was about 2:30 in the morning after a night out at the bars/clubs. I don’t think anything ever tasted better right then.
FABU! now i’m thinking most cultures have their own version of fried dough. these look SCRUMPTIOUS.
Those look really good!
Your Loukoumades look like our Buñuelos…. A delish, but our buñuelos are eaten cold.
These look dangerous!!
Natashya, I know I’m biased but these are better.
Lore, I have one more B-day offering to post…yes, that’s right!
Cakelaw…it was my B-day…good enough excuse.
Val, some shops in Van City might offer these.
Andy, you probably did..they are everywhere in Greece.
Never Full…fried dough rules!
Nuria, these can be eaten hot or cold but I think they are better hot.
Nicole, take only 6…at a time! lol
Greek donuts!!! Aaaah! Get them away! I grew up in Jersey, where there are many Greeks…and many Greek donuts.
I ate four dozen at one sitting once. I can still feel my spleen protesting…
Hey – Greek koeksusters!! We have a plaited, deep-fried Afrikaner confection in South Africa called koeksusters(pronounced cooksisters, hence the name of my blog, geddit, geddit??) that’s remarkably similar to this, down to the dunking in syrup after deep-frying! Like with these loukoumades, everybody loves them but few can be bothered to make them
How about FedExing a few across to us here in London?!
OMG!!!! These look simply amazing!!