Greek Doughnuts With Candied Walnuts and Honey

GREEK DOUGHNUTS W CANDIED WALNUTS, HONEY.jpeg

Greek Doughnuts With Candied Walnuts and Honey

Ingredient

200g Walnuts
1/2 cup caster sugar
Ground cinnamon
Local Australian Honey

Dough
1 cups of white all-purpose flour
1 cup of self raising flour
1 cup / 240 ml lukewarm water
½ cup lukewarm milk or Almond milk
1 sachet (7 g) dry instant yeast
1 tbsp sugar
Pinch of salt
1 tbsp oil + more for frying

Method

Mix all the dry dough ingredients together apart from flour. Then add lukewarm water and milk and mix well until the yeast has dissolved.

Wait for the yeast to activate. (Foam on top in liquid)

Then add flour gradually (you might need more or less depending on how the yeast reacts) until you get a runny batter similar to pancake batter.

Cover with a piece of cling film and rest it for about 1-2 hours (in warm weather it will take less time), until dough triples in size and there are lots of air bubbles visible.

Whist the dough is rising, lightly wet walnuts and dust with caster sugar and cinnamon and place on a tray lined with greaseproof paper and bake at 180 20 mins or so until walnuts are caramelized.

Once the dough is ready, heat up a small pot with oil on the stove (or deep fryer 180c). Once the oil is hot, dip a teaspoon in it and then scoop a teaspoon of the dough and gently drop it into the hot oil. Give the dough a good stir in between batches.

Fry about 6 to 8 loukoumades at one time. As the dough is very puffy/airy, they have a tendency to float, make sure you flip them now and again to be sure they are cooked evenly.

Once your loukoumades are golden brown all over, fish them out of the oil with a fork or a slotted spoon and place them on a few layers of kitchen roll to get rid of excess oil.

Drizzle over local honey and crumble walnuts and another light dusting of cinnamon if desired and enjoy.

Recipe by Philip Vakos