Loukoumades aka Greek Doughnuts With Honey And Cinnamon

When I was a kid my gran and mom used to make Loukoumades aka Greek Doughnuts With Honey And Cinnamon. If you are unfamiliar with this particular Greek treat, then let me give you some insight. They are bite-sized pockets of dough, deep-fried until crispy on the outside and soft on the inside and then drizzled in warm honey and cinnamon!

They are delicious beyond words and the mere mention of them transports me straight back to my childhood.

Traditionally, in a household, they would be made to celebrate your baby cutting its first tooth. But personally I think I’m going to start making them just to celebrate the end of every week, or maybe Wednesdays AND the end of every week, yup that sounds like a good plan! I mean you can never have too many Greek Doughnuts soaked in Honey And Cinnamon as far as I’m concerned.

The recipe below yields quite a large number of these tasty suckers, so you have been warned. If you’re out to make only a small batch then I’d suggest halving it.

Texture-wise they are soft, like I mentioned above and not oily at all, so you don’t have to worry about that. I also thought they would be a lot more of a mission to make, but they weren’t at all. They fry up pretty quickly and are totally worth the longest step, which is waiting for the dough to rise.

Happy doughnutting!

If this isn’t your jam then try out some of my other sweet and savoury recipes 🙂

Best Coffee Cake In Town

Apple Streusel Cake

Beef In Satay Sauce

INGREDIENTS FOR Loukoumades aka Greek Doughnuts With Honey And Cinnamon:

• 1 cup of lukewarm water
• 12 g active dry yeast
• 1 cup of lukewarm milk
• 3 and 1/4 of cups plain flour
• 2 Tablespoons sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 Tablespoons olive oil
• Oil for frying
• Cinnamon
• 3/4 of a cup of honey
• Chopped up pecan nuts

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a large bowl add the water and yeast, stir with a fork and let it sit for 5 minutes until the yeast dissolves completely.
2. In the same bowl add the milk, flour, sugar, salt and olive oil. Then mix with an electric mixer on a high speed for a couple of minutes, until the mixture is nice and smooth. It’ll be pretty sticky at this point.
3. Cover the bowl with some cling wrap and let the dough rest in a warm place for at least 1 hour to rise. It should more than double in size.
4. In a deep frying pan or medium-sized pot pour enough oil to deep fry the loukoumades. Heat the oil on high (I had it on the setting just before high, so 5 on my stovetop). Before you start, test to see if the oil is hot enough by dropping some of the dough into it. If it sizzles the oil is ready.
5. Have a cup of water near you because you are going to need to dip a tablespoon into before you spoon out some of the dough, make sure your hands are also a bit wet, it’ll help prevent the dough from sticking to you. You’ll have to do this every time you spoon some mixture out.
6. Scoop about half a tablespoon of dough, take it off the spoon using your fingers and gently place the mixture into the hot oil. You can add a few at a time as long as they don’t touch one another.
7. Then using a slotted spoon flip them over after a minute or two. They don’t take long to cook so keep an eye on them! Once they are golden brown they need to come out!
8. Place the loukoumades on some kitchen paper to soak up some of the oil.
9. When you are done, place all the loukoumades on a large plate.
10. In a small pot heat up about a 3/4 of a cup of honey with a sprinkle of cinnamon in it. Once runny drizzle the hot honey over the doughnuts and then sprinkle them with with a bit more cinnamon and some chopped pecan nuts (if you have).