Loukoumades

Delight for the palate and pleasure to raise the mood, the Loukoumades are one of the more appreciated sweet in Greece. They are a traditional Greek dessert with roots in deep antiquity.
A fragment of the poet Callimachus mentions a type of cooked honey-cake.

This fragment from Callimachus has been used to argue the supposed antiquity of loukoumades and a connexion to the ancient Olympics. Infact there may be a connection to the ritual feeding of the victors at ancient Olympia, and Aristotle and other ancient writers refer to “gift cakes", that were offered to the victorious athletes in a highly ritualized ceremony.
Various assertions have also been made regarding “ompne” in the text means sacrificial cakes made of grain and honey. A dish very similar is described by Archestratus, a Greek poet from Sicily, was “enkris” a dough-ball fried in olive oil, which he details in his Gastronomy. This word is also used in the Greek Septuagint to describe the manna eaten by the Israelites in the book of Exodus and in the book of Numbers.
After all this talking about the origin of the loukoumades it's the moment to cook.
This is the recipe.


1 cup of lukewarm water
1 cup of lukewarm milk
15g active dry yeast
3 and 1/4 of a cup flour
2 spoons sugar
1 tea spoon salt
4 spoons olive oil
oil for frying

Instructions
In a large glass dissolve the yeast in the tepid water, along with the salt.
Use a large bowl, add in the flour and the dissolved yeast and mix with your hands. Then start adding tepid water slowly until the mixture become thick and foamy.
Cover the bowl and let the mixture rest in a warm place for at least 1 hour where it will rise.
Put the 500 ml oil in a deep pan and heat. Make sure that the oil takes over only half of the pan’s depth.
Turn the mixture in the bowl a few times with your hands.
Take a handful of dough and, with your hand in a fist, squeeze until the dough comes out as a ball between your thumb and index finger. Using a tablespoon which you have dipped in a glass of cold water, scoop this ball and place in the deep pan to fry. Repeat this several times depending on the size of your pan.
Loukoumades will puff up and float to the surface. You then should turn them occasionally, until batter is a crisp, golden brown on all sides.
Remove carefully with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.
Place drained puffs on warm platter and keep warm.
To serve individual portions, place 4 or 5 loukoumades on a plate drizzle honey and cinnamon over or with a chocolate sauce.
Loukoumades are best if eaten warm, the same day and even better at the time they are made.
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