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A top view of a serving plate with lokma balls.
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5 from 2 votes

Lokma Recipe

Turkish lokma is a popular sweet pastry made from sweet dough balls fried to golden brown and then soaked in syrup. A common street food throughout many Middle eastern countries.
Prep Time20 mins
Cook Time20 mins
Rising time1 hr 30 mins
Total Time2 hrs 10 mins
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: Middle East
Diet: Halal
Servings: 15
Calories: 160kcal
Author: Amira

Ingredients

For the dough:

  • 1 ½ cup all purpose flour
  • ½ Tablespoon sugar
  • ½ Tablespoon dry yeast
  • 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
  • ½ cup warm water
  • ½ cup yogurt plain full fat
  • Oil for frying

For the syrup:

  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 ¼ cup water
  • 1 ½ teaspoon lemon juice
  • ¼ cup honey

Flavors for the syrup: use any of the following

  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract Or cinnamon stick, ½ teaspoon orange blossom water or rose water.

Optional nuts for garnishing:

  • Roughly chopped pistachios or hazelnuts

Instructions

Start the dough:

  • In the bowl of a stand mixer, add flour, sugar, yeast and mix for 30 seconds to combine.
  • Add water until a hard dough forms, if you find it too hard and does not come together add another tablespoon of water and mix.
  • Cover and let it rest for 30 minutes.

Make the syrup:

  • Combine syrup ingredients with the flavor of your choice in a medium sauce pan, stir to combine ingredients .
  • Bring to a boil on medium-high heat then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Set aside to cool down completely.

Finish the dough:

  • After the 30 minutes, add yogurt to the mixture and knead with the flat beater for almost 5 minutes or until dough comes together.
  • Cover and let it rise for 1 hour at least or place in your fridge for up to 24 hours.

Fry dough balls

  • Heat oil for frying on medium-high heat.
  • When oil is hot, reduce heat to medium and start frying the dough.
  • Using a small ice cream scoop, dipped in oil form small balls and drop into the oil to fry.
  • Oil the ice cream scoop every now and then to ensure that the dough will glide easily from the scoop.
  • After the pan is full with dough balls, raise the heat up again to medium-high.
  • Fry the balls until they are golden brown.
  • Immediately take the dumplings out and dunk them in the simple syrup, stir to coat.
  • Get the dumplings out of the syrup after 3-4 minutes and place in a colander to drip excess syrup.
  • You can roll the balls in cinnamon sugar or make the chocolate syrup and pour it over. You can also dust the dumplings with powdered sugar.
  • Serve immediately as it is better when fresh.

Video

Notes

  • If you want to make a chocolate syrup you will need:
  • corn syrup, sugar and heavy cream.
    • In a medium bowl or measuring cup add chocolate and corn syrup.
    • In a small sauce pan , stir together sugar and heavy cream until sugar dissolve, heat until just about bubbling at the edges,
    • Pour the hot cream mixture over the chocolate and corn syrup and mix with a spatula until well combined.
  • For the cinnamon sugar:
    • ½ cup granulated sugar + 2 Tablespoons ground cinnamon
  • For more tips and notes please check the post above.

Nutrition

Calories: 160kcal | Carbohydrates: 38g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 0.5g | Saturated Fat: 0.2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 1mg | Sodium: 6mg | Potassium: 29mg | Fiber: 0.4g | Sugar: 28g | Vitamin A: 8IU | Vitamin C: 0.2mg | Calcium: 13mg | Iron: 1mg