Bamieh | Persian Tulumba with Saffron and Rosewater

Bamiye is a famous type of Iranian sweet which becomes super popular during the month of Ramadhan. During that month, this Persian sweet with saffron and rosewater can always be found on the Iranian dining table at Iftar. Another type of Iranian sweet is called “Zoolbia”. These two types of sweets are usually served together and honestly speaking, they are really pleasant to eat.

In Persian cuisine, it’s called Bamieh. In Turkish cuisine, it’s called Tulumba, in Arabic cuisine, Datli/Balah Alsham or Asabe Zainab and in Spanish/Mexican cuisine it’s called Churros.

To prepare Persian Tulumba with Saffron and Rosewater, a syrup is needed. That’s why in this post thee are two recipes. One for the “syrup” and then for the ”Bamieh”.

Bamiye | Tulumba

To make this sweet two steps are to be done: preparing the dough and preparing the syrup. In order to prepare a crispy sweet some subtle techniques must be followed in both steps.

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 45 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr

Course Dessert

Cuisine persian

Servings 4 people

Calories 250 kcal

Ingredients

  

• 150 grams flour
• 240 gram water
• 20 grams butter
• 2 eggs
• Oil as much as required

Instructions

 

• Add the water and the butter to a pot and wait for the butter to melt. Instantly, add some of the flour and wait for the combination to boil. Then add the rest of the flour, mix the ingredients and lower the fame of the gas burner. Use the back of a wooden spoon to stir the dough. Also separate the dough into small pieces. Keep separating the dough, mix the pieces again and then put them in pieces again. This process must take about 8 to 10 minutes. This will help the dough cook better and you will also get rid of the extra water in the dough. When the dough looks ready, put out the flame of the gas burner and put the dough in a different dish at once.
• The dough must cool down, but it mustn’t be cold, only the extra heat needs to be gone. When the dough has cooled down, add a tablespoon of the syrup (this will make the sweet look darker at the final stage. if you want the sweet to look yellow, do not add any syrup at this stage) and one egg. Mix the dough and the egg. When the ingredients have completely been mixed, add the other egg and mix them again. At this stage the dough must be sticky. But if you fell that it's not sticky enough, in a different dish mix the white and the yolk of the third egg and add 1 spoon of the mixture to the dough. Mix the dough and the egg. If it gets sticky enough, you are good to go but if not add and mix one more spoon of the egg.
• At this stage the sweets must be fried in some oil, but the oil doesn't need to be pre heated. Actually when you put the dough in the oil, the oil must be cold. Use your pastry bag and put the dough in it. Push the dough out of the bag and put small pieces of the dough in the oil. Now, put the pot on the gas burner and wait for the sweets to cook and look puffy. When they are completely fried, take them out of the oil and put them in the syrup which has already been prepared. They must be removed after about 3 minutes.
• The lovely Bamieh is ready. Put them in a dish and top them with pistachio slices.

Simple Syrup

The syrup needs to be prepared first, because the pieces of Bamiyeh need to be placed in the syrup.

5 from 4 votes

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Prep Time 5 minutes mins

Cook Time 15 minutes mins

Total Time 20 minutes mins

Cuisine persian

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

  

• 2 glasses water
• 3 glasses sugar
• ¼ cup rosewater
• ⅓ teaspoon citric acid
• saffron as much as requires

Instructions

 

•  put some water in a pot and boil the water. the citric acid must be added .After the water started boiling. At this step, the water will be foamy and bubbly, this is when the sugar must be added but do not stir it! The crystals should dissolve slowly and gradually (so the flame of the gas burner mustn’t be high). After the combination started boiling, add the rosewater and the saffron(Lower the flame of the gas burner and wait for the syrup to boil and become thick gradually.
• Timing is really important here. This process takes about 15 minutes, not longer and not shorter. As mentioned before the flame of the gas burner must be low. If not, small white crystals of sugar, called Shekarak in Persian, might appear in the syrup
•  As you already know, the syrup must be “thick”. This means that it should be sticky. If not, the Zulbia won’t be as crunchy as it has to. But be careful not to make the syrup over thick because pieces of Shekarak are almost certain to appear. The syrup must cool in a colder environment. When it cools down, the syrup must almost as thick as honey, but less.

Tips for preparing Bamieh

• If the sweets become soft after a few hours, this means that they haven’t been cooked and fried enough.
• The amounts of different ingredients are really important so make sure to measure them correctly. It’s a good idea to use a kitchen scale.
• Eggs can be unpleasant to smell for some people. If you are one of those people, as well as adding the eggs, add ¼ teaspoon vanilla powder.
• The citric acid can be replaced with 2 tablespoons lemon juice and the rosewater can be replaced with some pieces of true cardamom.
• Do not cool the syrup in a fridge.
• If the syrup is too thick or even if those small crystals of sugar have appeared, add ¼ cup boiling water and let the syrup boil for a short while again.
• This syrup is called “simple syrup” which is technically a combination of water and sugar and is used a lot in cooking sweets. So if you have made a more amount of it, it can be kept in a fridge and used later.

A quick look at Ramadan

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. The exact dates of Ramadan change every year. This is because Islam uses a calendar based on the cycles of the Moon.

After the sunset prayer, Muslims gather in their homes or mosques to break their fast with a meal called ifṭār that is often shared with friends and extended family.

The ifṭār usually begins with dates, as was the custom of Muhammad, or apricots and water or sweetened milk. 

Making tulumba with molds!

If you want to make bamieh with molds, you can use the ones below. It helps you make bamieh much easier than other ways.

Try to make it at home!

The very easy way to have bamieh at home is to buy it from the pastry shops. The point in making bamie is that it’s better to make it at home. Buying bamieh can be very adverse. Even if you make this sweet at home you should not eat a lot, because it can be harmful to your health. As it has high amount of sugar, carbs. If you really wanted to buy these sweets try not to buy the dark colored ones, the lighter the color is, the lesser the adverse effects are.

Colorful bamie!

If you want to have a very beautiful and lovely Iftar table, you can think of colorful bamies. By adding some artificial color to the dough, you will have bamies in different colors. Colorful bamies are very tasty and cool, but they are not that healthy. So you need to make and eat them less than the normal bamies.