Tulumbe are the most beloved Serbian syrup-soaked pastry — small, tube-shaped choux-like pastries piped into hot oil, fried golden, then drowned in sugar syrup. Brought by the Ottomans, they became a Serbian institution, found in every poslastičarnica (sweet shop), the Balkan cousin of Turkish tulumba and Spanish churros.
Tulumbe are a Ottoman-derived pastry that became deeply embedded in Serbian cuisine. The dough is a choux-like paste (flour, water, butter, eggs) piped through a star-tipped piping bag into hot oil, fried into small golden tubes, then soaked in sugar syrup (often flavored with lemon or vanilla). They are related to Turkish tulumba and Spanish churros, but the Serbian version is always syrup-soaked (not just dusted with sugar). They are found in every poslastičarnica (Serbian sweet shop) and are the most common dessert at Serbian gatherings.
A small, golden, syrup-glistening tube of fried pastry — the outside is slightly crisp (the syrup softens it), the inside is hollow and soft, and the whole thing is intensely, sweetly, wetly soaked in syrup. Bite in; the syrup floods the mouth. It is the most indulgent Serbian sweet.
The dough is a choux paste (cooked on the stovetop first, then eggs beaten in). It must be piped through a star tip (the ridges hold the syrup). The oil must be at 170°C — the pastry puffs as it fries. The syrup must be cold when the hot pastries are added (the temperature shock creates the texture — the hot pastry absorbs the cold syrup). This is the opposite of warm-syrup soaking.
Variations
Some flavor the syrup with lemon, vanilla, or rose water; some add chocolate sauce; some make them larger; the syrup sweetness varies.
On the Palate
Where Tulumbe sits in the Serbian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 12
How it's made
9 steps · 1 hour active + 30 min waiting
- 115 min
Make syrup: boil 400 g sugar with 300 ml water and 1 tbsp lemon juice 10 minutes; cool completely; chill.
- 210 min
Make choux: bring 250 ml water, 100 g butter, and 1 tsp salt to a boil; add 150 g flour all at once; stir until the dough leaves the sides.
Watch outCook the choux paste, stirring, until it pulls cleanly from the pan sides and leaves a film on the base — that dried-out dough is what puffs properly when fried.
- 35 min
Cool 5 minutes; beat in 3 eggs, one at a time, until smooth and glossy.
- 43 min
Heat oil to 170°C.
Watch outHold the oil at one-seventy — too cool and the pastries soak up grease without puffing, too hot and they brown before the inside cooks.
- 55 min
Pipe the dough through a star-tipped piping bag into 5-cm lengths directly into the oil.
- 68 min
Fry 3-4 minutes until deep golden.
- 71 min
Remove; drain briefly.
- 830 min
Plunge the hot pastries into the cold syrup; soak 30 minutes.
Watch outPlunge the hot pastries straight into the cold syrup — the temperature shock is exactly what pulls the syrup deep into the ridged shell.
- 91 min
Drain; serve.
