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Balah el Sham (Arabic mini churros)

These Arabic fritters are irresistible. Crunchy from the outside and airy from the inside, you won’t be able to stop at one.
Course Dessert
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Resting time 10 minutes
Total Time 55 minutes
Author Khaled

Ingredients

Dough

  • 200 ml water
  • 20 g ghee or butter
  • 5 g vanilla extract
  • 150 g flour
  • 50 g corn starch
  • 50 g milk powder
  • 3 eggs
  • 2 g baking powder
  • 2 g salt
  • Oil for frying

Sugar syrup

  • 500 g sugar
  • 250 ml water
  • 5 ml lemon juice

Instructions

To make the sugar syrup (can be prepared up to 3 days ahead and preferably one day ahead)

  • Place the sugar and water in a heavy bottom saucepan. Set on the stove top on medium heat.
  • Bring to a boil, then add the lemon juice.
  • Simmer for 10 minutes.
  • Cool in the fridge before adding the fritters.

To make the dough

  • Mix the flour, corn starch and baking powder in a bowl and sift.
  • In a medium sauce pan, on a medium heat, add water, ghee and vanilla extract and bring to a gentle boil.
  • Add flour mixture all at once, and stir quickly until well combined, has a dough like texture and is no longer sticking to the pan.
  • Add salt and milk powder and mix thoroughly.
  • Transfer to a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. With the mixer on, start adding one egg at a time. Make sure each egg is fully incorporated, before adding the next one.
  • Transfer to mixture to a piping bag, fitted with a star nozzle.
  • Place oil in a large pan (the bigger the more fritters you can fry at once), and start piping the dough directly in the oil, into 5 cm logs and cut through with the scissors. Keep a steady pressure and continue piping until the pan is full or you run out of dough.
  • Fry on medium heat until golden brown.
  • Remove from oil and place on kitchen towels to remove excess oil then transfer directly to the cold syrup.
  • Let the fritters sit in the syrup for 5 minutes before serving.

Notes

Best eaten within 6 hours of frying. Do not be tempted to fry the second batch in the hot oil, make sure you cool down the oil before. Here, you would not need to cool it down completely but not boiling hot oil.