Loukoumades Recipe: Greek Honey Doughnuts at Home

Loukoumades are small Greek doughnuts: spoonfuls of yeast batter fried until crisp and golden outside and airy inside, then drizzled with honey and sprinkled with cinnamon and walnuts or sesame. They are sold hot from shops and festival stalls all over Greece, and similar fried dough balls are made across the Eastern Mediterranean, such as Turkish lokma. At home they need only flour, yeast, water and a pan of hot oil, and they are best eaten within minutes of frying.

Loukoumades recipe

Serves: about 30–35 puffs, 4–6 servings. Prep: 20 minutes, plus 1 hour rising. Cook: about 20 minutes. Total: about 1 hour 40 minutes.

Ingredients

Dough

• 2 cups (250 g) plain (all-purpose) flour
• 2¼ tsp (7 g, 1 packet) instant yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• 1¼ cups (300 ml) lukewarm water
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Vegetable or light olive oil for deep frying

To serve

• ⅓ cup (115 g) honey, such as our Kalymnos thyme honey
• 1–2 tbsp hot water, to loosen the honey
• Ground cinnamon
• 2–3 tbsp chopped walnuts or toasted sesame seeds

Method

1. In a large bowl, mix the flour, yeast, sugar and salt. Add the lukewarm water and olive oil and beat with a spoon or whisk for 2–3 minutes until you have a smooth, sticky batter, a little thicker than pancake batter.
2. Cover and leave somewhere warm for about 1 hour, until doubled and full of bubbles.
3. Heat 2–3 inches (5–8 cm) of oil in a heavy, deep pan to 350°F (175°C). Keep a lid and a slotted spoon nearby, and never leave the pan unattended.
4. Dip a teaspoon in a cup of oil, scoop up some batter and push it off with a second oiled spoon (or squeeze the batter through your fist and scoop off the ball that appears between thumb and forefinger).
5. Fry in small batches for 3–4 minutes, turning, until puffed and deep golden all over. Don’t crowd the pan, or the oil cools and the puffs turn greasy.
6. Lift out onto paper towels. Keep frying until the batter is used up, letting the oil come back to temperature between batches.
7. Warm the honey with a little hot water so it pours easily. Pile the loukoumades on a plate, drizzle generously with honey and finish with cinnamon and walnuts or sesame. Serve straight away.

The batter: wet and bubbly

Loukoumades batter is much wetter than bread dough. It should be sticky and stretchy, and it should fall slowly off a spoon. That high water content is what makes the puffs light and hollow inside. After rising, the batter will be full of bubbles; don’t stir it down hard, just scoop from the top. If it is too stiff to drop from a spoon, beat in a tablespoon of warm water; if it spreads flat in the oil, add a spoonful of flour.

Frying safely at home

Deep frying is quick, but hot oil needs respect. The USDA’s food safety service warns that frying oil can reach over 400°F (204°C), and that water hitting oil at about 350°F (177°C) turns instantly to steam and makes the oil spatter. A few precautions make it easy:

• Use a heavy, deep pan and fill it no more than one-third full of oil.
• Dry your spoons and hands; keep water away from the pan.
• Use a thermometer and keep the oil around 350°F (175°C). Too cool and the puffs soak up oil; too hot and they brown before cooking through.
• Never leave the pan, and turn off the heat as soon as you finish.
• In a grease fire, never use water: cover the pan with a metal lid and call the emergency services if needed.

Olive oil, sunflower and other common oils are all listed by the USDA as suitable for deep frying. Let used oil cool completely before straining it into a sealed container; don’t pour it down the sink. For more on oils and heat, see our olive oil smoke point guide.

Honey and toppings

Warm honey flows into every crevice, so loosen it with a spoonful of hot water or warm it gently in a pan. A thyme honey gives a fragrant, slightly herbal finish; read our Greek thyme honey guide for more. If your honey has crystallized, melt the crystals gently first. For a different finish, try hot honey for a sweet-spicy version, or sprinkle toasted sesame seeds instead of walnuts; our guide to toasting sesame seeds shows how.

Variations

• Syrup instead of honey: some shops soak loukoumades in a sugar syrup flavoured with honey and lemon.
• Chocolate or praline: modern loukoumades shops serve them with chocolate sauce and nuts.
• Savoury: fry the plain puffs and serve them with a sprinkle of sea salt and grated cheese.
• With yogurt: spoon them beside thick yogurt, as in our Greek yogurt with honey.

Serving and storing

Loukoumades are at their best within 10–15 minutes of frying. The batter, however, can be made ahead: let it rise, then keep it covered in the fridge for a few hours and bring it back to room temperature before frying. If you do have leftovers, refrigerate them within 2 hours, as the USDA advises for fried foods, and re-crisp them in a hot oven before adding fresh honey. Honey should not be given to babies under one year old.

For more Greek honey sweets, try our melomakarona and baklava, explore the Greek honey collection, or browse all our Greek pantry recipes.

Sources

• USDA FSIS: Deep fat frying and food safety
• National Honey Board: Honey FAQ (cooking with honey, infants and honey)

Loukoumades: frequently asked questions