Hanukkah recipe: Bumuelos in red wine sauce

Similar to fried doughnut holes, bumuelos are little round balls of choux-like pastry fried in oil and prepared by Jews of Greece and Turkey. In this recipe, from food writer Phyllis Glazer, the bumuelos are topped with a dusting of powdered sugar and are served with a sweet, red wine syrup.

This festive dessert is one of the favorite holiday recipes we’ve collected in our “Los Angeles Times Holiday Handbook.” The book shares more than 110 seasonal recipes to help you celebrate Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas and New Year’s. We’ve also updated last year’s “Los Angeles Times Holiday Cookies,” so it now includes 65 recipes from a wide range of sources, including world-famous pastry chefs and home cooks.

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Bumuelos in red wine sauce

Total time: 1 hour, 20 minutes

Servings: 6 to 8

Red wine sauce

2 cups regular or turbinado sugar

2/3 cup dry red wine

2 cinnamon sticks

4 whole cloves

In a small, heavy-bottom saucepan, combine the sugar, red wine, cinnamon sticks and cloves. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce the heat to a gentle simmer and cook until the liquid thickens to a honey-like consistency, about 5 minutes. Be careful not to overcook or the sauce will harden. Remove from heat, strain out the cinnamon sticks and cloves and set the sauce aside in a warm place. If not using right away, cool the sauce and then cover; rewarm the sauce before using.

Bumuelos and final assembly

1 cup water

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

2 teaspoons sugar

Pinch salt

1 1/2 cups (6.4 ounces) sifted flour, or more if necessary

3 to 4 eggs

Canola oil for frying

Powdered sugar for dusting

Red wine sauce

1. In a medium saucepan, heat the water, butter, sugar and salt over high heat until the butter melts and the mixture comes to a boil. Remove from heat and set aside.

2. While the water is coming to a boil, place the flour in the bowl of a mixer or in a large bowl. Using the beater attachment or electric mixer, beat in the boiling liquid mixture over low speed. Continue mixing on low speed until a soft dough comes together in a single mass, leaving the side of the bowl.

3. With the mixer running, add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Continue adding eggs until the dough is soft but thick and sticky; depending on the dough, you many not need to add the fourth egg. Set the dough aside.

4. Fill a wide pot to a depth of 1 1/2 inches with oil. Heat the oil until a thermometer inserted reads 350 degrees.

5. Using a medium ice cream scoop or 2 soup spoons, take a heaping tablespoon of dough, form a coarse ball and slip it into the hot oil. (If the ball is difficult to form, beat additional flour into the dough, 1 tablespoon at a time.) Fry 1 or 2 test bumuelos until puffed and golden brown (this will take about 7 minutes). They should puff to the size of ping-pong balls and have the light, fluffy consistency of good doughnuts.

6. Continue to fry 4 to 5 balls at a time until golden brown. (The second and third batch will always be better than the first.) Remove the fried balls to a paper towel-lined plate and dust with powdered sugar. Set aside until all of the dough is fried; this makes 14 to 16 bumuelos.

7. To serve, spoon 3 tablespoons of warm sauce onto each serving plate. Place 2 to 3 bumuelos on each plate and serve immediately.

Each of 8 servings: 667 calories; 5 grams protein; 70 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram fiber; 40 grams fat; 10 grams saturated fat; 123 mg. cholesterol; 52 grams sugar; 53 mg. sodium.