Luqaimat

Luqaimat (لقيمات) is a sweet from the Gulf region. Small portions of dough are dropped into oil, fried into balls and topped with date syrup, sugar syrup or similar. It is popular in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere, and it is also served at Ramadan meals. In a single bite, the crunch of the thinly fried surface combines with the softness inside and the sweetness of the syrup poured over the top.

The Arabic name means “little bite.” Similar fried sweets are found across a wide area and are also known by names such as lokma, awameh and luqmat al-qadi. However, the shape and the way the syrup is applied vary, and these names cannot all be reduced to a single common recipe (the proportions of ingredients and the method).

Ramadan Markets and Homes

During Ramadan, sweet fried treats are prepared for iftar, the meal that breaks the fast after sunset, and for the gatherings that follow. Luqaimat do not need to be cut like a large sweet. They can be piled on a plate and taken one at a time. In Qatar, people buy them freshly made at markets, and they also fry them at home to serve to family and guests.

Dropping Fermented Dough into Oil

A dough of wheat flour, water, yeast and other ingredients is left to rest until bubbles appear. It is then dropped into oil a little at a time. Rather than kneading firm round balls by hand, most methods divide a soft dough into small portions and let them puff up as they fry. Even when the outside turns golden brown, the inside stays soft. This contrast between outside and inside gives the sweet its texture once the syrup is added.

Some methods add milk to the dough, some rely mainly on water, and some also use cornstarch or baking powder. Doughs leavened with yeast alone and doughs that also use another leavening agent need different resting times and handling. Milk adds a dairy flavor, while in water-based doughs the spices and the finishing syrup come to the fore.

During frying, the pieces are turned so that the entire surface browns. The fried balls are lifted out of the oil and drained of excess oil before the sweetening is added. In Qatar, luqaimat are also popular as a sweet sold at street stalls and snack shops, enjoyed for their freshly fried crust and warm interior. At Souq Waqif, some women who sell home-style food fry them on the spot.

Lokma, a related sweet, sold in Istanbul. Syrup-coated fried dough is served in a cup. Photo: Benreis, 2016-03-27, Istanbul, Turkey. Original image / CC BY 3.0. Reduced-size version from the hosting source, with no additional editing.

More Than One Kind of Syrup

Some Gulf luqaimat are topped with dibs, a syrup made by boiling down dates. The dark syrup runs into the gaps between the round pieces, and sometimes sesame seeds are scattered over the surface. In a method presented by a culinary school in Dubai, a syrup of sugar, honey, lemon and saffron is simmered and cooled, and the fried dough is dipped in it briefly. The same source also describes drizzling date syrup or honey over the top. Other versions combine sugar syrup and honey, and in Qatar there are known versions scented with cardamom or saffron. Whether the spices go into the dough or into the sweet finish depends on the method.

In recent home cooking, some versions are topped with condensed milk, chocolate or similar toppings. The fried dough balls may be the same, but these finishes change their sweetness and aroma. A date-syrup version and a milk-sauce version differ not only in color but also in flavor: the concentrated taste of cooked-down fruit compared with the richness of milk.

A traveler who ordered luqaimat at a restaurant in Dubai described a plate topped with date sauce, noting the light crunch of the outside and the chewy texture inside. This is one restaurant’s example of a warm fried sweet paired with a fruit syrup.

An Old Fried Sweet with the Same Name

The name luqmat al-qadi, meaning “the judge’s morsel,” appears in medieval Arabic cookbooks. A cookbook written in Baghdad in 1226 describes taking hazelnut-sized pieces of kneaded, fermented dough, frying them in sesame oil, soaking them in syrup and sprinkling them with fine sugar. Frying small pieces of fermented dough and finishing them with sweetness is similar to present-day luqaimat. However, the appearance of this name in a cookbook does not mean that the modern Gulf style was already established in 1226.

On the other hand, the 14th-century cookbook Description of Familiar Foods records a sweet of the same name in which a paste of almonds or pistachios kneaded with sugar is covered with a thin dough and fried. The major difference from modern Gulf luqaimat is that in one the dough itself is the main element, while in the other it is a thin wrapper around a nut filling. In the medieval period, the same name covered several different structures, which shows the range of this fried sweet as it continued with changing aromas and finishes.

Luqaimat from Kuwait. The small spherical pieces of fried dough and the gloss of the syrup coating their surface are visible. Photo: Aldousari / CC BY-SA 3.0, Original image.

Glossary