Cafe Liz

April 10, 200922 Comments

Bimuelos (sweet Passover dumplings)

Liz Steinberg

My mother learned to make bimuelos from her maternal grandmother, who brought the recipe with her from Istanbul, along with her special bimuelo pan. I don’t know anyone else who makes bimuelos for Passover, beyond my immediate family. And it’s a pity. They’re quite good. The word bimuelo merely means a fried dough delicacy in Judeo-Spanish. You could consider my family’s version a kind of Sephardi matzo ball — the batter is similar, but instead of being cooked in chicken broth, we fry ours, boil them in honey-sugar syrup, and then serve them doused in sweet cream. We eat them for breakfast every day of Passover. How could you go wrong?

Passover bimuelos have made the holiday for me ever since I can remember, yet they seem to be a lost art. Over the years, I’ve tried searching for the word on Google. In 2003 I turned up a whopping three hits. By last year things had slightly improved, up to about 20, including a Judeo-Spanish dictionary, a lecture in Ladino, a few articles about Hanukkah sweets, and a dozen photos I’d posted over the past few years. This leads me to think the world is in need of a bimuelo revival.

The bimuelo pan has seven wells. You fill them with batter, which then swells into perfect balls. The pan is apparently also used for making Hannukah donuts, as well as a Danish treat called aebleskiver by those who don’t realize it’s a bimuelo pan. I found a decent pan at 4 Chef a few years ago, for 80 shekels (you can get a similar pan in the U.S. from Fante’s or on Amazon). It’s cast iron, which makes it quite heavy, but it also cooks the bimuelos very nicely. For the past five years, it’s been turning out fine little golden dumplings every Passover. Not quite the record my mother’s pan has, but a good start nonetheless.

In order to decrease the competition for my mother’s heirloom pan, I decided to give my sister her own bimuelo pan for Hannukah last year. I lugged the heavy hunk of iron in my luggage all the way from Ben-Gurion Airport to JFK, getting some strange looks from baggage scanners on the way. Lo and behold, when I presented my sister with her pan, her face registered surprise, and then she and my mother began to laugh. Because it seems my brother had the same idea that year — he had decided to buy me a nice bimuelo pan as well. So I basically flew 11 hours to trade one cast-iron pan for another.

So now I have two bimuelo pans. It turned out to be a major time-saver — I prepared my batter in no time at all this year. And since tomorrow is my birthday, I’m planning to stick a few candles into a bimuelo or three, and call it a cake.

(The photos: My mom with her antique bimuelo pan, bimuelos ready to be flipped, bimuelos that have just been flipped, and me working my bimuelo factory a few years ago.)

And with no further ado, my family’s bimuelo recipe:

For 32 bimuelos (based on 2 1/8 inch wells):

1 cup matzo meal (give or take)
10 medium-sized eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup honey
Oil

Crack eggs into a bowl. Slowly beat in the matzo meal. Let it sit for a few minutes; the matzo meal will absorb some of the liquid from the eggs and thicken. You want the batter to have the consistency of a cake batter — not runny, but also not stiff. Add a little more matzo meal if you need.

Meanwhile, prepare the syrup bath: Put the honey and sugar in a large pot, and fill with enough water to boil the fried bimuelos (the water should be at least two bimuelos deep). Bring the liquid in the pot to a low boil.

Put the bimuelo pan on a medium flame. Pour a bit of oil into the wells. Once it begins to get hot, scoop a heaping tablespoon of batter into each well (more or less, depending on the specs of your pan). You don’t want the batter to drizzle or drip into the well, because it will cook unevenly and the dumpling won’t be smooth on the outside. Also, don’t add extra batter on top of the original scoop — same reason.

Once bubbles begin to form on the top of the batter, flip each dumpling over in its well. The now-exposed bottom side should be golden. If it’s burnt, turn down the heat.

(If you don’t have a dedicated dumpling pan, you can try deep-frying the batter in a few inches of oil, or arranging some metal rings for cooking eggs in a regular pan. I admit that I haven’t tried this, so I don’t know how well the dumplings will hold their shape.)

Once both sides are golden, dump the bimuelo into the boiling syrup bath. This is what will make it soft inside. Let it boil until you can feel with a fork that it has no hard center. Remove cooked bimuelos to your storage container.

Repeat for the rest of the batter, adding more oil to the pan as necessary. When you’re done, pour the syrup into the storage container, so that the bimuelos are stored in liquid. This keeps them soft.

Chill, and serve with a few spoonfuls of the syrup and a good dousing of sweet cream (You can forgo the cream if you want this to be parve, but it’d be a pity.)

Your bimuelos are welcome here!

I’m loving all the comments about other kinds of bimuelo traditions, and you’re more than welcome to tell me (and the many other readers — this is one of my most popular posts) about it. What city does your recipe come from? Who is the relative who made it? Is it made with matzo or matzo meal, deep fried or pan fried, boiled in syrup or served with honey, or something else altogether?

Related Posts:

More on: brunch, Dairy, dessert, honey, Jewish, matzo meal, Parve, Passover, Turkish

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22 Comments »

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1. That’s so interesting! My grandmother made bimuelos for the family when we were kids, back in the 70s. The recipe was very similar to yours. She smashed up matza with water instead of using matza meal and fried the bimuelos in a pan instead of a dumpling pan.

   Also, the syrup was lemon and sugar, not honey and sugar… otherwise very similar!

   I was searching for bimuelos randomly, as it was a favorate Pesach food as a kid, but as an adult no one I know seems to have ever heard of it. For awhile I was wondering if I imagined them….

   Comment by Lyle Scott — April 10, 2009 #

2. I learned to make bimuelos from my aunt, who learned it from my grandmother (who was also from Turkey). The only difference is that ours are made flat like pancakes. Thanks for the pictures, I had no idea there was a special bimuelso pan!

   Comment by Deborah — April 11, 2009 #

3. Wow, it’s really great to hear other people’s bimuelo stories!

   Lyle, the bimuelos were definitely not a figment of your imagination. I saw recipes for bimuelos like you’re describing in a 1971 cookbook, “Cooking the Sephardic Way,” produced by the Tifereth Israel temple. I think the cookbook is out of print, but this is the recipe.

   Comment by Liz — April 12, 2009 #

4. [...] century and that previous incarnations would have been more pancake-like. He mentions the Sephardic bimuelos, “a traditional honey-drenched fritter flavoured with anise” which is their Hannukah [...]

   Pingback by Pancake: A Global History « Eating Stamford Hill — April 15, 2009 #

5. We also had bimuelos growing up – my paternal grandfather was from Turkey and my grandmother from Bulgaria… Every year she made them for us and now we make them for ourselves… Plain and spinach flavored… Pesach is all about my Sephardi side.

   Comment by elie — April 17, 2009 #

6. Elie, I’m totally with you, in case you couldn’t tell by my Passover posts.

   How exactly do you make spinach bimuelos? I’m guessing you forgo the syrup?

   Comment by Liz — April 19, 2009 #

7. Oh wow. I never had bimuelos (yes, my family also came from Turkey but guess the recipe got lost during the Atlantic crossing some 70 years ago century.) However, like any good South American, I grew up with BUNUELOS, the Spanish version of the fried dumplings. That variety, unfortunately, is not kosher for Pesach

   Comment by Creativivi — April 20, 2009 #

8. My daughter, in desperation to find a pan for what we call bunuelos, found your article. My mother in law brought our pan from Istanbul; it is probably the same as yours. I make them regardless of holiday, because everyone loves them, but the recipe is a bit different.

   Batter: matzoh meal, eggs, milk, a big of baking powder, salt, and chopped spinach if desired. Mix together into a batter that can be spooned loosely, fill pan depressions with hot oil, spoon in batter, turn bunuelos over, drain and sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired. Very simple.

   Comment by Barbara — December 16, 2009 #

9. [...] bimuelos, a Turkish staple that aroused a surprising amount of interest as expressed by the commenters from [...]

   Pingback by Cafe Liz » Passover 2010 on Cafe Liz -- Kosher vegetarian recipes from my kitchen in Tel Aviv — March 17, 2010 #

10. Hi,
    I was very pleased to learn about a new bimuelo recipe.
    Years ago when I was coming from Istanbul to Toronto, my late brother had asked what wanted for a house warming gift.
    My request was bimuelo pan.
    Every year I make my bimuelos in this pan.
    My recipe is
    3 matzohs, 1 egg , 1/4 cup of water.
    Mix them prepare the patties and fry them.
    You may increase the quantities accordingly.

    Comment by Jane Elvin — April 2, 2010 #

11. Hi Jane, thanks for sharing! I’ve seen bimuelo recipes similar to yours, it’s nice how every family has its own variation.

    Comment by Liz — April 11, 2010 #

12. My husband’s family was from Istanbul. His mother gave us her bimuelos pan, unfortunately only made of aluminum. He (my husband) makes the version with matzoh crumbled and soaked in warm water, app. 4 matzohs with 2 eggs. We finally bought a regular aebleskiver pan (non-stick) from Williams-Sonoma in the States; much easier to clean and you don’t need as much oil! We alternate bimuelos with matzoh brie!

    Comment by Barbara — October 24, 2010 #

13. Hi Barbara, great story! I think our original Istanbul bimuelo pan is also made of aluminum — looks like that’s just how they made them at the time.

    Comment by Liz — October 24, 2010 #

14. Pan? Our bimuelos were boiled in a big pot of oil. The dough was dropped into the boiling oil and sank to the bottom. As the bimuelos got done, they rose to the top. They were served with honey.

    Comment by Carolyn — April 18, 2011 #

15. My Abuelita, Fortunee Abouaf, helped contribute to that Sepharadic cookbook mentioned above. She told us stories of how difficult it was to capture the measurements because no one measured anything. I need some bimuelos…her bimuelos…right now

    Comment by David Steinberg — April 18, 2011 #

16. wonderful family recipe and story. Never heard of bimuelos but would make a nice variation from kneidlach. I wonder why these are not more popular, I know several friends of Turkish heritage and they never mentioned this recipe. Pesach Sameach!

    Comment by Sarah — April 19, 2011 #

17. Thanks, Carolyn, it’s great to hear about other recipes. Were your bimuelos made with matzo meal, too?

    Comment by Liz — April 25, 2011 #

18. David, it’s an amazing cookbook. I hope you got your bimuelos. Care to post your grandmother’s bimuelo recipe?

    Comment by Liz — April 25, 2011 #

19. Oh yes, matzoh meal and eggs. Once they floated to the top they would turn themselves over when the first side was done, it was fun to watch!

    Comment by Carolyn — April 25, 2011 #

20. [...] Liz has a nice list of recipes, with the biscotti, bimuelos and the spinach mina looking especially intriguing. And don’t miss her post-Pesach Mimouna [...]

    Pingback by Passover Recipes: What Everyone Else Made « Pragmatic Attic — May 12, 2011 #

21. Liz:

    I love this recipe! The preparation method is reminiscent of the Japanese street food preparation method for Takoyaki. Takoyaki are smaller dough balls filled with octopus. Here is a video showing the preparation using a pick for flipping and removal:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Swpxz9J8P4o

    Takoyaki pans are available with many 1-3/4 inch wells.

    http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=takoyaki+pan

    I know the intended product is trayf, but the cast iron pans ought to work perfectly. There are even electric multi-welled takoyaki makers.

    Cheers!

    Comment by Anonymous-NY-Jew — December 9, 2011 #

22. The first commentor describing a fried matzoh drenched in sugar lemon syrup, was describing what my family called “fritolikes”. My parents were from Sarajevo and this was a favorite passover breakfast, or anytime meal. After the matzoh “brie” was fried, it was simmered in the syrup for a couple minutes and served hot. The syrup used was a tradition made all year long for various desserts especially the candied fruits we called “dulce” which my mother made from orange and watermelon rinds. These Yugoslavian Sephardic dishes were considered mostly Turkish. My mother always put a vanilla bean in the syrup pot making a heavenly aroma throughout the house and a superb syrup.

    Comment by Rose — December 22, 2011 #

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