Loukoumades (Greek donuts) Recipe

Loukoumades (Greek donuts) are a family favourite and always transport me back to fairs I visited as a child in Cyprus, whilst on vacation.

Light, fluffy and sticky, these mini donuts take a little more time to make than some of my other recipes here (I like to leave the dough to rest overnight for the best results) but they are well worth it! These are traditionally made on January 6th. On that date, the Christmas holidays in Greece and Cyprus officially come to an end with the ‘festival of light‘ (‘ton foton’ in Greek), also known as Epiphany. This feast day in the Greek Orthodox Church is known as ‘Theophania’ which means ‘a vision of God’ or ‘Christ shining through’. It is supersitious to throw these donuts onto the roof of your house to ward off the ‘evil eye’ and bad vibes. We admittedly did not throw them on our roof but we did eat them all!

My recipe is inspired by the one here. Let me know if you make them!

Ingredients:

• 2 packets dry yeast
• 2 cups lukewarm water
• 1 cup lukewarm milk (of choice)
• 4 cups white flour 
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• ¹⁄₂ teaspoon sea salt
• 2 tablespoons light olive oil
• oil for frying

• Garnish

• 1 cup honey (we like Manuka)
• ¹⁄₄ cup water
• cinammon cloves
• ground cinammon
• icing sugar for dusting

Method:

Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm water. Add it to a large bowl with the milk, flour, sugar, salt and oil, stirring it into a batter.

Cover the bowl with a tea towel and let it rest for a couple of hours or overnight as I like to.

The following day, heat the oil for frying in a large saucepan and test the heat by adding a little bit of dough. If it sizzles, it’s ready! Add several round balls leaving enough room for frying. They should not touch one another. Fry until golden brown and remove onto a plate to cool. Add all the dough balls until they’re cooked.

In a small pan, make the honey syrup warming the water, honey and cinammon together. Remove the cloves once the syrup is bubbling.

Pour over the donuts and dust with icing sugar. Yum!