Basbousa

I hope everyone has had a wonderful Eid. Eid passed with a lot of fun in our family, but something that has been receiving a lot of attention by my family lately is this semolina cake. Even though everybody in our family has different preferences when it comes to food in general. This cake doesn't have a cakey texture but it is very soft, moist and slightly crumbly. It smells heavenly from the rose water and tastes even better on the second day.  

It goes by many different names and is wildly popular in Middle East, Greek, Turkey, throughout the Levant and the North African countries, since many of these countries share a common Ottoman heritage. The recipe varies a great deal though, some contain eggs while others don't, some include yogurt while others include milk, some made with butter or clarified butter and others with vegetable oil, some with coconut and others without. I made it egg-less and without milk to store it a little longer.A piece of this delectable semolina cake, and perhaps a cup of a mint tea, is everything you need to be transcended to another world in this autumn cold. 

I hope you all will love this recipe :)

Ingredients:

For Basbousa:

3 cups semolina

3/4 cup butter or ghee

1 cup greek yogurt / yogurt

1/4 cup orange juice

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking  powder

2 tablespoons tahini sauce

Zest of one orange (optional)

Peeled slivered almonds for decoration

1 tablespoon of tahini to brush baking dish

Sugar syrup for drizzling

Ground pistachio

To make the syrup

3 cup sugar

2 cups of water

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon rose water (optional)

Directions:

Make the syrup :

Place the sugar, water and lemon juice in a pot over medium heat

Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes

Take off the heat and add the rosewater if using.

Make the basbousa :

1. Mix the semolina,butter, yogurt, juice, sugar, baking powder, tahini and orange zest in a pot until homogeneous.

2. Brush a baking dish with tahini.

3. Pour the batter into the baking dish.

4. Level the surface using a wet hand.

5. Use a wet line to make cuts in the pattern that you like.

6. Decorate with peeled almonds.

7. Bake on the bottom rack of a preheated oven at 180 until the edges are golden brown (about 30 minutes).

8. Place under the broiler until the top is golden brown.

9. Take out of the oven and allow it to cool for 5 minutes.

10. Drizzle with syrup. (the amount depends on how sweet you want the basbousa to be. Do remember that basbousa needs to be hot and the syrup needs to be room temperature)

11. Decorate with ground pistachio.

12. Serve when the basbousa is room temperature.

ENJOY :)