Deep decadence

Carnival is all about excess and indulgence, the last craze on binge eating and drinking before Lent starts. Following Lent is not easy. Going completely dry and vegan for several weeks requires strong stamina. Some take it easier nowadays and try to detox or just abstain from favorite foods, but even that is not quite festive, and demands will power. Before such a period of distressing dedication, going a bit over the top in drinking and exaggerating guilty pleasures is totally acceptable. Deep indulgence comes in the form of deep fried greasy sweets. Though there is no religious constraint about sweets or sugary products, it just does not seem right to enjoy those addictive sweets during Lent. Spring-cleaning of the body and soul is soon, so why not enjoy the moment? This is the sweet spirit of the carnival.

Deep fried sweets are not only the trademark of carnivals. Most festivities worldwide have a tradition of such fried fancy foods. Puffy balls tossed in crystal sugar, strips of dough sprinkled with a dust of powdered sugar, or fried forms of leavened or unleavened dough or batter drenched in syrup or drizzled with honey appear in the most tempting ways worldwide. Fairs are good grounds for selling these, where freshly fried fancy morsels disappear quickly devoured by the cheerful crowds. 

Refined white flour and sugar were two luxury items, so were spices like cinnamon. Use of vast quantities of fat for frying is an act of excess on its own, so white flour based dough fried in abundant fat and rolled in sugar is the ultimate indulgence. 

One method is pouring batter directly into not oil, as is the case with a variety of sweets, sometimes directly from hand, as in the case of our beloved lokma in Turkey, but through specially designed...