I've wanted to make loukoumades for some time now, but have been put off because they appeared to be too fiddly and time consuming. To be perfectly honest when I'm craving something sweet, the last thing I want to do is sit around and wait for dough to rise. I'm the first to admit that I don't possess Jamie, Ilva or Deeba's grace and patience when it comes to baking. Where sugar is concerned, I'm pretty much an instant gratification kind of girl.



So when Anastasia happened to mention on the phone the other day that she doesn't add yeast to her loukamades, I suddenly became all ears. Anastasia is one of those annoyingly gifted cooks who improvises and guesstimates her way around the kitchen and gauges quantities by look and feel.

So when I asked her for the recipe I instantly sensed her cringe. 'Oh, come on' I whined 'I want to blog about your unbelievably simple loukoumades'. I find appealing to ones ego usually works a treat. 'OK' she replied 'how about I come to your house and you watch me make them, then that way you can write down the measurements while you make me a coffee?

'Fabulous' I replied, 'can you come now?'

'Yes, turn the coffee machine on and I'll be there in five.' she answered.

 
Loukoumades with Milk, Honey & Cinnamon Ice Cream

You can either toss the loukoumades in copious amounts of cinnamon sugar or douse them in some warm honey infused with cinnamon.


Ingredients

2 cups of organic self-raising flour

2 cups of water

2 tbsp of caster sugar

A pinch of salt

Grape seed or sunflower oil, for deep-frying


Cinnamon sugar, to finish



Method

1. Put the flour, sugar, salt and water in a large bowl and whisk until you have a smooth batter.

2. Heat enough oil in a saucepan for deep frying and then take teaspoonfuls of the batter and gently push them into the hot oil with the other teaspoon. Fry for a minute or two or until they are puffed up and are a light golden colour. Drain on kitchen paper and transfer to a serving bowl.

3. Toss the warm loukoumades in copious amounts of cinnamon sugar or alternatively douse them in warm honey infused with cinnamon. Serve them warm with some homemade milk, honey and cinnamon ice cream.





Milk, Honey & Cinnamon Ice Cream

I was chatting to Denise from Chez Us about how wonderful this Milk, Honey and Cinnamon ice cream was and she decided to make a batch too. Why don't you go and take a look at hers - it's divine!

Adapted from Falling Cloudberries 2006

Ingredients

300ml full fat organic milk

300ml organic cream

3 organic egg yolks (optional)

1 tsp ground cinnamon

½ cup organic raw honey


Method

1. Bring the milk, cream, cinnamon and honey slowly to the boil in a saucepan.

2. Remove from the heat and transfer the mixture to a bowl. When it's cool, place the bowl in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. Put the mixture in your ice cream machine and proceed according to the manufacturers instructions. Serve with a pile of warm loukoumades.