More cooking adventures involving fried dough. Every cuisine has their version(s), everyone loves them and many deny themselves eating such pleausures. I’ve never been an advocate of making desserts lighter..does that mean I can three portion of the lighter version?

Desserts are desserts, they should be sweet, they should catch your eye, they should be fattening and yes, they should be delicious! Touloumbes fall into this category. No excuses, no clever Mediterranean diet postitive side effects here. These are made of a choux dough (flour, eggs, oil) and fried until golden then allowed to steep in a honey-syrup spiked with whole cloves.

The first time I tried Touloumbes were in Thessaloniki, Greece. Practically all the patisseries offer them and most people buy them, offer them as part of an array treats to a hostess. This recipe comes courtesy of a faimily friend, kuria (Mrs.) Eva Avramis. Hands down…the best Touloumbes I’ve ever tasted!

Equipment-wise, you will need a medium sized pot to make the choux in, a larger pot or wok to fry the Touloumbes, another medium pot to make the syrup and a wire rack to set the syruped Touloumbes on (and a tray underneath to catch and harvest leftover syrup).

Touloumbes

(makes approx. 30)

2 1/2 cups water

1/3 cup sunflower oil

Choux pastry

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

splash of vanilla extract

5 large eggs

For the syrup

2 cups water

2 cups sugar

1/4 cup honey

3-4 whole cloves

1. Make your syrup in advance so it has time to cool (syrup must be cool/room temp. and Touloumbes hot). Bring up to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the honey, stir in and take off the heat and allow to cool (room temp. is fine).
2. Place a medium pot on your stovetop and bring up to a boil. In the meantime, measure out your flour in a large bowl. Crack your eggs into a small bowl and set aside. When the water comes to a boil, remove the pot from the heat and add the hot water into the middle of the flour and incorporate with  hand mixer. Add the vanilla extract plus an egg and use your hand mixer to blend in. Add and mix in the remaining eggs one at a time. Set aside
3. Place a wide pan/pot on your stovetop and add about 1 inch of oil. Bring the oil up to a temperature of 300-325F. Insert a #6 star nozzle into a large piping bag and use a spatula to fill it.
4. When your oil has reached 325F, squeeze the choux pastry out of the bag and cut into three inch length with scissors into the hot oil. Fry in batches.
5. Fry gently until just golden brown, remove with a slotted spoon and place in the reserved cooled syrup. Allow the Touloumbes to soak in the syrup for about 5-6 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and place on a fine mesh rack (with pan underneath to harvest leftover syrup). Serve on  platter or small plate with a dusting of cinnamon on