Tulumba is hollow inside because the dough goes into COLD oil and heats up along with it. Dropped into hot oil, it cooks instantly on the outside and stays doughy within. That is the most counterintuitive and the most important rule in the recipe.
Ingredients
For the dough
For the syrup
For frying
Method
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Make the syrup
Boil the sugar and water for 15 minutes, add the lemon juice and cool completely.
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Cook the dough
Bring the water, oil and salt to the boil, add the flour and cornflour and stir for 3 minutes until the dough comes away from the side of the pan.
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Cool
Transfer to a bowl and cool for 20 minutes, until you can handle it.
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Add the eggs
Add the eggs one at a time, beating until each is completely taken in.
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Pipe
Put the dough into a piping bag with a star nozzle and pipe 4 centimetre lengths into a pan of COLD oil.
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Fry slowly
Turn on the heat. As the oil warms the tulumba rise to the surface. Fry over a medium heat for 20 minutes, turning now and then, until golden.
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Add the syrup
Put the hot tulumba into the cold syrup for 5 minutes, then lift them into a sieve.
Tips
- The oil must be COLD. That is the single most important rule in this recipe; in hot oil the inside stays doughy.
- Add the eggs one at a time; all at once and the dough splits.
- THE SYRUP RULE: the dessert hot, the syrup cold. Do not leave them in the syrup more than five minutes or they go soft.
Nutrition
Values are per serving and approximate.