Loukoumathes: Honey Puffs

Charlotte J's Note:

This recipe uses milk and a hefty helping of baking powder to create these small light fried balls of dough that are drizzled with honey and sprinkled with nuts. These are loved by all Greeks and are a traditional Greek Jewish sweet at Hanukkah.

• Total Time: 20 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 5 mins

Ingredients:

Yield: 30 pieces

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 4 tablespoons oil or 4 tablespoons melted butter or 4 tablespoons margarine
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 egg
• oil (for frying)
• honey, for drizzling
• finely chopped walnuts
• ground cinnamon

Directions:

1. Sift the flour with the baking powder into a bowl.
2. Add sugar, oil (or butter or margarine), milk, and the egg, and mix with a wooden spoon until smooth.
3. Heat 1-2 inches of oil in a saucepan or deep frying pan to just below the smoke point (medium to medium-high on most stoves).
4. When the oil is hot, drop the batter by the small teaspoonful into the oil and fry until golden on all sides.
5. Drain on paper toweling.
6. Get enough dough on your spoon to equal the size of a unshelled almond.
7. Keep a small bowl of cold water next to the workspace and dip finger before pushing batter into the oil (to keep batter from sticking).
8. Place on serving platter and drizzle with honey.
9. Dust with walnuts and cinnamon, and serve.

Reviews

[wahmommy]

Love this recipe - made them last year for hanukkah after reading that loukoumathes were probably one of the foods that were eaten at the earliest hanukkahs :) Delicious and easy to make, everyone loved them. Also not too sweet..I don't like donuts as I find them too sweet usually, these were pleasantly sweet but not overly so, unless you covered them completely in honey that is! I also like that this recipe doesn't call for dry yeast which I don't have in my pantry all the time.

[Abi Fae]

I did something wrong! It didn't stay round. They were wonderfully delicious!! No one had any issue eating them flat but... What'd I do wrong? LOL. I blame Colorado in a cold rain storm :D ZWT6 eta: um. I halved it but the whole egg and a bit too much milk. Gadzooks! I shall try again :D

[Stardustannie]

Mmm...tasty little morsels of yum!! These are so crispy on the outside yet light and fluffy on the inside. Although the rest of the family had theirs drizzeled in honey, cinnamon & walnuts I enjoyed mine plain. Reviewed for October Photo event - Northern Mediterranean.