🍰 DESSERT
Loukoumades
Airy fried dough puffs soaked in honey syrup and dusted with cinnamon, an ancient sweet loved across Cyprus.
Cypriot · medium · serves 6
prep 90 min · cook 20 min
~402 cal · 6g protein · 94g carbs · 1g fat · 2g fiber · 46g sugars · 0g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Loukoumades are among the oldest recorded desserts in the world, honey-drenched fried dough balls served to victors at the ancient Greek games. Across Cyprus and Greece they remain a favourite treat, sold at festivals and made at home for guests.
A soft, wet yeasted batter is dropped in spoonfuls into hot oil, where it puffs into light, hollow golden balls, crisp outside and airy within. Still hot, they are drowned in honey or syrup and dusted with cinnamon, sometimes with a scatter of sesame or crushed nuts. Eaten warm, they are impossibly light and impossible to stop eating.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and dairy-, egg-, nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 6
- 3 cups flour
- 2 tsp instant yeast
- 2 cups warm water
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup honey
- 1 tsp
- to dust ground cinnamon
- oil, for frying
Instructions
- 1Whisk the flour, yeast, salt, and warm water into a wet, sticky batter and let rise until bubbly, about 1 hour.
- 2Drop spoonfuls into hot oil and fry until puffed and deep golden, turning.✎ Chef’s noteKeep the batter wet and loose and use two wet spoons to drop it. A stiff dough gives dense loukoumades instead of airy, hollow puffs.
- 3Warm the honey with the orange blossom water, then dip or drench the drained loukoumades in it while still hot.✎ Chef’s noteThe orange blossom water in the syrup is the Cypriot signature that sets them apart from the plain Greek honey version.
- 4Dust with cinnamon and serve warm.
Cypriot and Greek ancient tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Nicosia. Kleftiko takes its name from klefti, meaning stolen. Shepherds are said to have sealed meat into a pit dug in a hillside so that no smoke would give them away, and the modern version keeps the principle: lamb sealed in a covered oven for hours until it falls off the bone.
🗺️
Cyprus. Halloumi holds EU protected designation of origin status, which fixes what it can be made from and where. Souvla is not souvlaki: large pieces of meat on a long skewer turned slowly over charcoal for hours, which is a Sunday and a family affair rather than something bought at a counter.
🌍
Europe. A surprising amount of European cooking is under five hundred years old. Tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, maize, beans and chocolate all crossed from the Americas after 1492, and none of them was trusted quickly: the potato took most of the eighteenth century to be accepted as food rather than animal fodder across much of the north.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Cyprus
SheftaliaHerby caul-wrapped sausages of pork and onion, charcoal-grilled and tucked into pita with salad.
Halloumi and EggsSlices of grilled halloumi with fried eggs and fresh tomato, the classic Cypriot breakfast.
KoupesTorpedo-shaped bulgur shells stuffed with spiced minced meat and onion, fried crisp, a favorite Cypriot snack-lunch.
Browse all Cyprus recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Whisk.
Storing it: Best the day it is made. Wrap well and refresh in a warm oven, or freeze and reheat straight from frozen.
Make it a Cyprus meal
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Frequently asked questions
What is Loukoumades?
Airy fried dough puffs soaked in honey syrup and dusted with cinnamon, an ancient sweet loved across Cyprus.
Where does Loukoumades come from?
Loukoumades is a Cypriot dish from Nicosia, Cyprus.
Can Loukoumades be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Loukoumades recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Loukoumades safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Loukoumades take to make?
About 110 minutes total (90 minutes prep, 20 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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