Tulumba, Fried Dough Soaked in Syrup

I have been planing to make this delight for almost two years. This is a calorie bomb, so I hesitated, and it didn't look like an easy thing to make. I had everything that's needed: foolproof recipe from Maja, tool for dough piping she gave me the when we met in Belgrade for the first time (we organized a small meeting of Serbian food bloggers), and finally, a gorgeous Turkish dish for serving.

Like many other Turkish desserts, such as well-known Baklava or Kadaif, this one is soaked in water-sugar-lemon based syrup too. I don't know what is so special about Tulumbas, but people from Balkans cannot resist them. They never sit in the fridge for too long.

So I made Tulumbas, and when they were gone I decided to immediately start sugar-free diet :) To feel less guilty than I did, you can use half the amounts from the recipe below. Go to Maja's blog to see pictures of whole process of making Tulumbas.

You need for syrup:


2lb sugar
2 1/2 cups water
1/2 lemon, finely sliced
Few kumquats, sliced, optional


You need for dough:

1 3/4 cup water
Pinch of salt
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 cup +1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 large eggs


You need for frying:

4 cups Canola oil


Steps:

You should make syrup first. In a medium size pan cook water with sugar until it starts to boil. Reduce the heat, add sliced lemon and cook for 10-15 minutes. Put the syrup on a side to cool down completely and then move to a fridge.

To make dough, in a medium size pot, bring water, salt, sugar and oil to boil. Turn the heat off, add flour and stir with a wooden spoon until you get smooth dough. Stir in beaten eggs and mix until dough becomes smooth and sticky.

In a large size pan add Canola oil. Do not turn on the heat yet. Fill the piping tool with dough, use star tip, and start to pipe small ridged tube shapes 2 - 3 inches long into pot with cold oil. Since the dough is sticky, you can use kitchen scissors to cut shapes loose. If you don't have the piping tool, a pastry bag with wide star tip will do it. Keep adding shapes until surface of the pot is filled. You won't be able to fit all dough into one pan, so you'll probably have to fry three or four batches. Now turn the heat on to 4 out of 6. Fry Tulumbas on both sides until they puff up and become golden brown. While frying, they will roll over on their own or you can tap them. When Tulumbas are done, turn off the heat and place them into the pot with cool syrup. While Tulumbas are bathing in the syrup, fry the next batch, but wait for 10 minutes for oil to cool down between batches. In the meantime, remove first batch to a serving dish. Repeat the same with the remaining dough. In the end, if some syrup is left over, pour it over Tulumbas in the serving dish.


Serve Tulumbas cold and keep them in the fridge.

Piping tool for Tulumbas