Egypt's fragrant semolina cake: basbousa

I've recently realised that there aren't many Egyptian desserts that I'm familiar with, apart from watermelon or chocolate; the desserts of choice growing up. But there have been hidden gems along the way. So I've begun to collect them. 

One in particular is basbousa in Egyptian, or up in Alexandria, it's called herissa. Over in Syria, it's  namoura, and in Turkey or Greece, it goes by revani (they seem to agree on that). 

All different ways to say sweet semolina cake oozing in honey/syrup.

While it's definitely not a dessert my family makes; ever, it's one that I've always loved saying: bas-bou-sa. Beautiful! And it sounds a little indecent too.

Smells like heaven 

Being that this was not a family specialty, I got to feast my eyes on it during the times we would hit up the Middle East bakery. If you haven't been to one, you should. The smells of pistachio and rose water are just enough to make you think everything will be light and fluffy, when in fact it's all soaking in butter and syrup. So everything is quite heavy, and very, very sweet. It's probably one reason the Middle East has a high rate of diabetes.

But back to the dessert store. 

There are trays of kunafa, baklawa, kahk (cookie stuffed with nuts) mamoul (cookie stuffed with dates), and basbousa, all layered and begging to be eaten. I always gravitated towards basbousa for a couple reasons: it's the easiest one to eat, and calling it basbousa in Egyptian gave me a little connection to my food. 

Most of the dessert places are Lebanese, so when they hear 'basbousa' immediately a conversation ensues in Arabic, and I explain in my broken Arabic after several questions are directed at me that 'I speak a little' 'very little' and then we all laugh and someone mumbles something that I don't understand, and then I hope I get a discount for being from the same region.

Semolina: for cake and pasta

Basbousa is made from semolina which is ground durum wheat. It's the same wheat used in pasta throughout the world, in couscous grains throughout North Africa, and in salads or meat pies in the Middle East in the form of bulgur (tabouleh, kobaeba). The wheat itself may have originated from the southern Mediterranean countries and Abyssinia (Ethiopia). It was also grown in Egypt during the Byzantine period (Middle Ages).

With the rise of Islam, trade between the Islamic empire and Europe began. Durum wheat was one of the Muslim world's biggest exports. Also, with the Islamic empire spreading all the way to Southern Italy, durum wheat inevitably made its way into Europe as a pasta.

The rise of basbousa

It's hard to say exactly how the dessert itself came to be, but it seems to follow a common theme with most of the desserts: bread-like, very very sweet, and buttery. It also doesn't require too many ingredients.

The basic list of ingredients is semolina flour, sugar, milk, water, rose or orange blossom water, and almonds/pistachios. If don't have either rose or orange blossom water, I would suggest holding off until. you do; it really makes the cake. This recipe can include coconut flakes as well, but the real cake is just semolina.  

It's simple enough to make, but one piece is really all you want. So make sure you know more than two people, since you'll need help finishing all of this. Or I suppose you could just half the recipe. That would be smarter. But I didn't think of that. So I have a tray of syrupy delights and not enough space to run circles in.

RECIPE

Total Preparation Time: 25 minutes

Yield: 4 huge portions, 8 large portions, or 16 reasonable portions

INGREDIENTS:

Cake

2 cups of semolina OR 3 cups of semolina if no dried coconut 

*On the off chance you can't find semolina flour, you can easily take bulgur grains and grind them in a coffee grinder into a more coarse type of flour. 

1 cup of dried coconut (unsweetened) 

1/2 cup sugar

150 g (3/4 cup) butter

1 cup of milk

Syrup

1 1/2 cup of sugar or honey

1 1/2 cups of water or 1/2 cup orange blossom/rose water 1 cup of water

2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice

DIRECTIONS

Cake

1. Preheat oven to 350F

2. Mix all ingredients

3. Add to a buttered dish

4. With a wet spoon, or hands, flatten down batter in dish so it is smooth and evenly distributed

5. You can add almonds to mark the squares to be cut once it's done

6. Put in oven for at least 15 minutes (though exact time depends on type of oven and depth of dish) 

7. Check that cake is done by inserting a sharp knife into the middle; if it comes out clean, then it's ready

Syrup

8. Add all ingredients to a pot

9. Bring to a near-boil while constantly stirring on high heat

10. Once sugar has dissolved, or honey has melted down, take off heat

11. Syrup should be clear, but not caramelised

12. Once cake is golden brown on top, take out of oven

13. Cut into squares or diamonds

14. Wait until the cake is lukewarm. Then start pouring the syrup, in small quantities. Allow it to soak and then add more.  

And done and done. Serve with strong coffee and lots of water. It tastes better by day two when the syrup has fully absorbed and each bite is like biting into a bag of flavoured sugar with buttery goodness.