Lokma Dessert Recipe
Lokma dessert was very popular for a while. You could see lokma stores in every street. Whatever happened, it then became outdated over time. Except for one city. Of course, I'm talking about Izmir. For the people of Izmir, lokma is not a one time thing, it's a lifestyle, so it never goes out of style. I'm sure you know this. Now I'm going to tell you something you don't know. There is another city that shows the same interest to lokma other than Izmir; Kirklareli. Yes, lokma are made widely in my hometown as well. But in a slightly different way. The bite we have is not made with syrup. The dough is made with the same ingredients and in the same way, cooked and eaten. Those who want it to be sweet can eat it with honey or molasses on the side. But our topic today is not that lokma. Today, we will talk about Izmir style lokma.
This is the first time I've done and measured this recipe by myself, and I've realized that I've never been to every step of it from start to finish before. While making it with my mother, I would either prepare the dough, squeeze it or fry it. This time I did it all alone. While I had this opportunity, I decided to try a few different things. First of all, I searched for an answer to one question "Should the lokmas be squeezed into cold oil or hot oil?" . For this, I made my first try with cold oil. Unlike Tulumba dessert, it did not have any effect on its cooking or crispness. If you've ever believed that one of these is necessary for lokum to be crispy, I have bad news for you. This is untrue information. In addition, since the dough is very soft, the first ones are expand until they are all squeezed out, and some of them stick together. In my opinion, squeezing the lokma into cold oil does not give a successful result.
Then I tried different squeezing methods. First, I started with the classic palm squeezing method. I'm a little rusty since I haven't done it for years, but as I did it, it got easier. However, I cannot say that it is the easiest method, especially for those who are new to try.
As a second method, I tried the piping bag. Since its mouth is wide, it flows very quickly and makes you stressed out, but I must say that I get the smoothest round shapes with this method.
As a third method, I tried the method of taking the dough with one teaspoon and scraping it with another. Their shapes were not bad, but I did not find this method very practical.
Finally, I used a piping bag-like method by cutting the edge of a plastic zip lock bag. Since its mouth is narrow, it does not flow very fast and therefore it is easily squeezed and cut. In fact, the first round gave a very successful result. I got perfect circles. But while squeezing the second round in the same way, their shape was distorted. I realized the reason for this later. As the heat of the oil softens the plastic, the shape of his mouth is distorted. Maybe a much thicker plastic (like disposable piping bags) would work better.
I think that I have found the most ideal method of cooking lokmas in my experiments. The lokma should be cooked by squeezing the dough out of a small-mouthed bag, cutting it with scissors, and leaving it in hot (but not smoking hot) oil. What makes the lokma crispy is that it browns well. Those that do not fry well soften after absorbing the syrup. If you do not cook the lokmas evenly by turning them constantly while frying, one side will be well browned, and if the other side is not browned, the browned parts will be crispy and the other sides will be softened. Therefore, in addition to good browning, pay attention to fry them evenly.
Lokmas are normally taken from the oil and put directly into the syrup. But while doing this, the remaining oil in the colander drips into the syrup, thus changing the consistency of the syrup. This softens the lokmas in the next rounds. For this reason, it will be better to take the lokmas into a strainer and drain the excess oil thoroughly (it will be enough to shake it a few times quickly) and then add it to syrup.
If your lokmas are crispy, they will not soften afterwards. You can prepare them and store them in the refrigerator. But unfortunately there is no method to make the soft lokmas crispy afterwards.
Enjoy the recipe...
Lokma Dessert Recipe with Video
Ingredients
- 2 cups of warm water,
- 2,5 cups of flour,
- 1 teaspoon instant yeast,
- 500 ml of oil for frying.
For syrup;
- 2.5 cups of water,
- 2.5 cups of sugar,
- A small slice of lemon.
Preparation
- For syrup, take water, sugar and lemon slice in a saucepan and boil over high heat until the sugar dissolves,
- After the sugar melts, decrease the heat and simmer for 15 minutes more and remove from fire,
- Take out the lemon slice and let it cool,
- After taking the syrup from the fire, proceed to the making of the dough,
- For this, mix water and yeast in a deep bowl,
- Add the flour little by little and whisk until you get a thick but still fluid dough,
- Cover it and let it rest for an hour,
- Mix the dough
- Heat the oil in a sauce pan,
- Put the dough in small pieces (you can squeeze it in your hand and take it with a dessert spoon, scrape it with two dessert spoons, put it in a piping bag or a plastic bag that you cut the corner of and cut the dough with scissors) into the hot oil and mix and cook until they are all well browned,
- Take them from the oil with a colander and take them out into a strainer, shake the strainer well and strain the excess oil,
- Pour them into the cold syrup immediately, mix it, keep it in the syrup for a minute or two, strain and remove from the syrup,
- Prepare the remaining dough in the same way.
Enjoy it...