Gulgulla (Dough Puffs in Sugar Syrup)

This is another Arabic & African sweet that is very simple to prepare, and tastes delicious... Traditionally, this dessert is not infused with other flavours except the sugar from the sugar syrup; but again in my 'Reviving Old Traditions' atempt I have infused it wth a variety of flavours on many occaions, and the feedback was always great with my family and friends!

Here, I have written for you the traditional recipe, and at the end of this post, I have included some flavour variations for you to try out...

You Need

·  1 cup flour

·  1/3 cup corn flour

·  1 teaspoon yeast (or 1 teaspoon baking powder)

·  Pinch of salt

·  1/2 cup water

·  1 teaspoon sugar

·  Pinch Cardamom Powder

Mix this and the mixture should resemble Lai (flour and water mixture which we seal the Samosas).

Put yeast and Sugar in 1/4 cup warm water, stir and leave to bloom for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a large bowl combine dry ingredients, then add bloomed yeast and mix with dry ingredients. add from 1 3/4 cups to 2 cups water depending how thick your batter is.

·  Stir the batter for 2-4 minutes

·  Cover and allow to rise in a warm place until it doubles in size as fermantation.

When double in size beat the mixture and will drop to original level.  Drop heaped tsps (I wet my fingers in water and pinch the mixture and drop them) in medium hot cooking oil and fry till golden. Remove golden puffs from oil and drain, then drop them in the prepared sugar syrup - Stir in the syrup until it is uniformly coated and then take it out.

Serve hot, warm or even cold! They are good whichever way you have them!!

Here is the best Sugar Syrup recipe to use with Arabic sweets:
Sugar Syrum - You Need

·  Rosewater syrup

·  2 cups sugar

·  1 cup water

·  1 teaspoon lemon juice

·  1 teaspoon of rosewater

Flavour variations:

Add 1tsp cinnamon, cloves or cardamon with dry ingrediets. OR
Add 1 tbsp Orange zest with dry ingredients. OR
Add 1 tbsp crushed anis to dry ingredients.

Arabic Sweets are really sweet and pair very well with the bitter flavour of Arabic Coffee (Kahawa). For the full experience serve Arabic sweets with Kahawa.

Hope you have enjoyed this post, and that I have inspired you to make some sweets at home.
Do give it a go, you won't be disappointed.