Balah el Sham (Sweet Fried Pastries) is a traditional Egyptian recipe for a classic dessert or snack of on oil, egg and flour dough that's deep fried, dipped in syrup and coated with coconut flakes before serving. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Egyptian version of: Sweet Fried Pastries (Balah el Sham).
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Ingredients:
For the Dough:
120ml oil
240ml water
210g plain flour
4 eggs
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
For the Sweet Syrup:
400g sugar
100ml water
1 tbsp lemon juice (or to taste)
80g coconut flakes (about)
Oil for frying.
Method:
Begin with the dough. Combine the oil and water in a saucepan. Add the salt and bring the mixture to a boil. Sift in the flour, stirring constantly. Continue cooking, stirring constantly, until you have a plain dough that doesn't stick to the sides of the pan. Take off the heat and set aside to cool a little.
In the meantime, combine the sugar, water and lemon juice for the syrup in a saucepan. Bring to a simmer, stirring constantly, until all the sugar has dissolved. When the mixture is thick take off the heat and set aside to cool.
In a bowl whisk together the eggs, sugar and vanilla extract. When the oil dough has cooled somewhat start mixing in the egg mass little by little, stirring constantly. You are aiming for quite a chick, almost dough-like batter (if it's too loose or liquid add a little more flour).
Transfer the dough into a pastry bag with a large star-shaped tip. Add oil to a wok or deep pan and heat over moderate heat. When the oil is hot pipe about 3cm lengths of the dough into the frying oil. Add a few of these at a time then fry until golden brown over quite a low heat (otherwise the pastries will be crisp on the outside and soft in the middle).
When done, remove with a slotted spoon, then transfer to kitchen paper to drain as you fry more of the pastries. Whilst the pastries are still warm dip them in the syrup for a few minutes then roll in the coconut flakes. Serve warm or cold.
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