🍩 Balah el sham
Balah el sham are ridged fingers of choux-style dough, made from flour, butter and egg, piped into hot oil and fried until crisp and golden. Straight from the fryer they are dropped into cold sugar syrup, so the outside stays crunchy while the hollow inside turns soft and syrupy. They are a popular sweet in Egypt and the Levant, especially during Ramadan.
Diets
Allergens
Contains (in a typical recipe):
What it is made of
Recipe
Ingredients
- 250 ml water
- 60 g butter
- 150 g flour
- 3 eggs
- Oil for deep frying
- 300 g sugar, 200 ml water and 1 tsp lemon juice for the syrup
Method
- Simmer the sugar, water and lemon juice for 10 minutes and let the syrup cool completely.
- Bring the water and butter to a boil, add the flour and stir until the dough leaves the pan sides.
- Cool for 5 minutes, then beat in the eggs one at a time until smooth.
- Pipe 6 cm fingers through a star nozzle into oil at 170 °C and fry until golden.
- Drain and drop straight into the cold syrup for a minute, then lift out.
How to make it lighter
- Deep-fried and syrup-soaked, they are best kept to two or three fingers.
- Drain them well on a rack before the syrup so they hold less oil.
- Make a lighter syrup with less sugar, or dip briefly instead of soaking.
History
The name means "dates of the Levant", after the fingers' shape. The sweet is especially loved in Egypt, Syria and Lebanon, and is close to the Turkish tulumba and Spanish churros.
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Values are estimates per 100 g for a typical recipe; home and restaurant versions vary. Diets and allergens are worked out from the ingredients of a typical recipe — always check with whoever cooked the dish. Not medical advice. Nutrition data: Me Nutrition dish database v13. How we count →