Egyptian Recipes

Basbousa (Semolina Cake)

Basbousa is a semolina cake soaked in sugar syrup, and it is one of Egypt's best known desserts. It is scored into diamonds before baking, an almond pressed into each one, and the cooled syrup poured over while the cake is still hot. Its names change across the region. It is revani in Turkey and the Balkans, hareesa in the Levant, namoura in Lebanon, and basbousa across Egypt and much of the Arab world. The Arabic word basbousa translates roughly as just a kiss, which is an unusually charming piece of naming for a cake. Coarse semolina is the ingredient that defines it and desiccated coconut is the second. Semolina gives the slightly grainy, dense crumb that no flour cake reproduces, and it needs time to hydrate: the batter rests half an hour in the tin before baking, which is a step easy to skip and hard to recover from. The syrup rule is the one that decides the result: cooled syrup onto hot cake, then a final five minutes back in the oven so it is fully absorbed. The scoring must go all the way through after baking, or the syrup sits on top rather than sinking in.

1 hr 30 minEasyEgypt

Recipe by Nympha · Africook

Zalabya (Egyptian Syrup Doughnuts)

Zalabya are small round balls of yeasted batter, deep-fried until crisp and dipped briefly in cold sugar syrup. They are Egyptian street food, sold from kiosks all over the country for very little, and they are eaten most of all during Ramadan. The source's description is the best one: think of them as the round part that is missing from a doughnut. They are crunchy outside and light and airy inside, and the syrup is absorbed only into the outer layer, so biting into one gives a burst of sweetness against a plain interior rather than sweetness all the way through. The names travel. Loukoumades in Greece, lokma in Turkey, zalabya or zalabia in Egypt, and loqmet al-qadi, the judge's bite, across the Arabic-speaking world. Versions are eaten all around the Mediterranean and into South Asia, where jalebi is a related but differently shaped relative. The batter is very wet, closer to a thick pouring batter than a dough, and that is what makes them light. It is dropped by the spoonful straight into the oil rather than shaped. The syrup should be cool when the hot balls go in, for the same reason as koeksisters: the temperature difference draws it in. The source's ingredient list has run its headings into the list and one water quantity is malformed.

1 hr 55 minEasyEgypt

Recipe by Blessing · Africook

Kunafa

Kunafa, also written kanafeh or knafeh, is a dessert of shredded pastry layered with a filling and soaked in syrup, and it belongs to a region rather than a country. It is eaten across Egypt, Libya, the Levant and the wider Arab world, and Palestinian cuisine in particular claims it as its defining sweet. The pastry is kataifi, phyllo dough shredded into fine strands, sold frozen at Middle Eastern and North African grocers. It is coated in melted ghee or butter, pressed into a tray as a base, filled, topped with more of the same and baked until the strands turn deep gold and crisp. Syrup goes on at the end. The filling is where regional versions diverge most, and where this recipe departs from the classic. Traditional kunafa is made with a mild soft cheese, Nabulsi or Akkawi, which stretches when hot and gives the dessert its characteristic pull; mozzarella is the common substitute. The version written here uses a thickened milk and cream filling instead, which is a legitimate variation eaten in Egypt but produces something quite different from a cheese kunafa. In Libya it is made in large quantities during Ramadan, and across the region it is a dessert for occasions rather than an everyday sweet.

★★★★★Highest Rated

1 hr 5 minMediumEgypt

Recipe by Blessing · Africook

Swabaa Zainab

Swabaa Zainab means Zainab's fingers, and the name is the dish. Ridged fingers of semolina and flour dough are fried until crisp and dropped into cold sugar syrup, coming out crunchy outside and soft within. Two stories attach to the name and Egyptians tell both. In one, a clever girl invented the sweet and guests praised it by saying teslam sawabe' Zainab, may God bless Zainab's fingers. In the other, it is named for Sayyida Zainab, granddaughter of the Prophet, who is deeply venerated in Egypt and after whom one of Cairo's central districts is named. Neither account can be verified and both are held affectionately. Its occasions are Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr above all, and it appears at popular celebrations through the year. It belongs to the family of Arab syrup sweets that also produces meshabek and basbousa, and it is described as among the oldest of them, mastered by Arab cooks and carried outward from there. Egyptian households share the recipe between families rather than from books, which is why the proportions shift from one kitchen to the next. It is eaten in the morning as readily as in the evening, with tea, coffee or juice.

★★★★★Highest Rated

45 minMediumEgypt

Recipe by Blessing · Africook