Description
Zalabia recipe, also known as awameh, is a popular sweet treat, similar to donuts. The dough is made from a few simple ingredients, fried, then dunked in sugar syrup. Crunchy from the outside and soft from the inside, delicious and addictive.
Ingredients
Scale
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 4 tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 teaspoons yeast
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
- 1 + 1/4 lukewarm water (divided)
- Oil for frying, I prefer avocado oil
Instructions
- Prepare sugar syrup ahead of time so it'll be completely cooled off before dipping zalabia.
Making Dough
- In a small bowl mix instant yeast and sugar with ¼ cup of lukewarm water.
- Combine well together and let it sit for 5 minutes or until it creates a foam or bubbles on top which is an indication the yeast is activated.
- In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, and cornstarch.
- Gradually add lukewarm water over the flour mixture and with a spoon mix the dough well together.
- Keep mixing until you have a smooth dough. Keep in mind the dough should be soft and stretchy.
- Cover the bowl with a plastic wrap and a kitchen towel and let the dough rest in a warm area for one hour.
- The dough should double in size after resting for an hour.
Frying
- Place a decoration bag or a zip bag inside a cup, using a tablespoon fill up the bag with dough.
- The dough is enough to fill up 2 decoration bags.
- Tie the bag from the top and cut the bottom (about 1 inch).
- In a frying pan, heat oil
- Hold the bag filled with dough in one hand and carefully squeeze out a small portions of the batter into the hot oil, forming a ball.
- Use a scissor to cut out the ball-shaped dough coming out of the bag into the frying oil.
- To prevent scissor in sticking to the dough, dip it in oil every few times.
- Fry zalabia in batches, until they are golden brown about 2-3 minutes per batch.
- With a frying spoon stir the balls so all sides are fried.
- With a slotted spoon remove zalabia balls from the oil and place them on a paper towel.
- While zalabia balls are still warm, dunk them in the prepared sugar syrup, ensuring they are well coated.
- Let zalabia soak in sugar syrup for a few minutes to absorb the sweetness. Then transfer onto a serving plate.
Notes
- To prevent zalabia from turning soggy, ensure it's dunked in cold syrup (or room temperature) right after frying.
- Don’t overcrowd the dough while frying, fry them in batches.
- If you need to serve them hot, you can fry them halfway, and then when ready to serve heat the oil and fry them again.
- By double frying them you can also guarantee that zalabia will be crunchy from the outside and soft from the inside.
- I cover the dough with a blanket to keep it warm while rising.
- Keep in mind that the balls will puff up and become slightly larger once placed in the hot oil.
- To test if the oil is hot and ready for frying, you can drop a small amount of the dough in the frying pan, if it fizzes means the oil is ready.
- If the yeast doesn't create a foam or bubble it means it has gone bad and can't be used.
- Turn the heat to medium-low until you fill up the frying pan with one batch to ensure all balls are evenly fried.
- You can use a squeeze bottle instead of the bag.