Luqaimat
Small, golden dough balls with a crisp shell and a soft centre, cooked in hot oil and drizzled with date syrup.
Photograph credit: Loukoumades Greek Doughnuts with Walnuts and Honey by Alpha from Melbourne, Australia · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons · this resized copy is shared under the same licence
How to Cook Luqaimat
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Mix the flour, cornflour, sugar, yeast, cardamom, saffron and salt. Add the milk and water and beat to a thick, smooth batter.
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Cover and leave in a warm place for 1 hour until bubbly.
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Heat the oil to 180°C / 355°F in a deep pan. Using a wet spoon, drop in spoonfuls of batter, 6 at a time.
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Cook for 3 minutes, turning, until deep golden. Drain on kitchen paper.
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Drizzle with the date syrup and sprinkle with the sesame seeds. Serve hot.
Related guide: Prep, cook and total time.
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Things to Watch For
- Keep a bowl of water nearby to wet your spoons.
- Do not overcrowd the pan.
- Serve at once; they soften as they cool.
Good to Know About Luqaimat
Wet your spoon, always. Luqaimat batter is sticky and loose, and without a wet spoon or hands the dough clings to everything and slides off in uneven lumps. A dish of cold water beside the pan solves this, and it is the only trick in the recipe.
The batter is flour, cornflour, a little sugar, yeast, cardamom and a pinch of saffron, mixed with warm milk and water to a thick but pourable consistency. It must rest for 1 hour in a warm place, until bubbly and almost doubled. The bubbles are what give luqaimat a light inside and a crisp shell. Stir the batter once before frying, gently. Beating it flat knocks the air out.
Heat the oil to 180°C / 355°F. Scoop a spoonful of batter with a wet spoon and push it off with another wet spoon or your thumb. The dumplings sink for a second, then rise and turn golden. Fry in batches for 3 minutes, turning, until deep gold all over.
Drain briefly and drizzle at once with warm date syrup, then top with sesame seeds. Eat them hot, in the first 10 minutes.
On the Table Alongside
Arabic coffee · Karak chai · Date syrup · Cinnamon
Leftovers
Best eaten hot. Keeps for 1 day; re-crisp in a hot oven.
Quick Answers
How long does Luqaimat take to make?
15 minutes of preparation and 15 minutes of cooking, plus 1 hour of Proving the batter, so allow 1 hour 30 minutes from start to finish. The recipe serves 6.
Luqaimat Nutrition
No nutrition figures are given for this recipe: they cannot be worked out reliably from its ingredient list (how much frying oil the food takes up cannot be known from the recipe). Why some recipes have none.
Your notes on this recipe
Cooked this? Keep a note for next time
Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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