Tulumbi

Method

1. Make the syrup first: boil the sugar and water for ten minutes, add the lemon juice and leave it to cool completely. It must be cold when the tulumbi go in.
2. Bring the water to the boil with the butter and salt. Take it off the heat and stir in the flour, semolina and cornflour all at once, beating hard until the dough gathers into a ball that leaves the sides of the pan.
3. Let the dough cool for ten minutes. Add eggs to hot dough and you get scrambled egg.
4. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each. The dough should be smooth and glossy, stiff enough to hold its shape.
5. Fit a piping bag with a ridged nozzle and pipe fingers about 5 cm long straight into oil heated to 160 °C — lower than you would usually fry. This is the whole trick: tulumbi must cook through before they colour.
6. Fry slowly for 8–10 minutes, turning them, until deep gold and hard to the touch. Too hot an oil gives you a soft middle.
7. Straight from the oil, lower the hot tulumbi into the cold syrup and leave them 5–7 minutes. Lift them onto a rack. With cold syrup and hot pastry, the syrup goes inside instead of soaking the outside.