Basbousa()

“This is an excellent version of one of my favorite local desserts.I made this with orange juice instead of lemon, and it was delicious!This is not a cake typical to American palates, but I highly suggest everyone try this at least once!”

“Thank you Najwa for a delicious and unusual cake recipe. I enjoyed the slightly chewy texture imparted by the semolina, and the sticky, moistness, provided by the syrup.My only complaint is that my family finished it off before I had a chance to have a second slice! Next time I will do as Mirj did, and make the syrup with orange juice.”

“I bought some semolina to try this and am glad I did.It is really much better the day after it’s baked since the lemon flavored syrup will be completely absorbed.Eating a few hours after it was baked was like having overly sweet cornbread.But on the following day it was great!The texture was more like a very moist cake and the flavor developed nicely.”

“Delicious!A great tasting little cake, perfect with coffee.I followed the recipe exactly but added some orange blossom water to the syrup, which gave a lovely aroma.Thanks for sharing. Will be making it again!”

“I made this as the dessert for a dinner party,and it was very well received,sweet but not too sweet with a great texture. For the dinner I served it with icecream,but DH asked me to make custard when he had some the next day, (we’d eaten a LOT that night which is the only reason it hadn’t been finished off!) and he liked it better that way.it was very easy to make and I ws very pleased with the result.Thanks for a great recipe :D”

“This is the most popular dessert in Alexandria,Egypt,where I was born.But, if I’m not mistaken,the name was,in Alexandria.We used togo after the movies,to get a piece of this dessert,hot whith a dob ofthe local wipcream,is the most delicious dessert anyone can have..Brings back sweet!!!memories,I thank najwa for sending it!!!!From Haary.”

“To answer BostonEgypt question on how to make basbousa less cake like is to omit the butter milk and the baking powder. i will post my recipe soon but I use 3 cups of semolina and the same amount of unsalted butter andmix them together with the same amount of sugar. Add in a differant bowl I will mix 1 cup of plain yogurt and the same amount of baking soda until it almost doubles in size. then I will mix the two mixtures together and press down in a small jellyroll pan and bake at 375 or 400 (depending on your oven) until the its a dark golden brown. Then pour on the cold syrup on the basbousa. Oh and in our family or culture basbousa is made with coconut and this recipe is called Harissa. Maybe its just a Palestinian thing.Hope this helps.”

“I just moved back to the states after six months in Egypt.I love basbousa and was excited to make many Egyptian/Middle Eastern dishes for my friends.They all fell in love with this one, and I liked it.But I was a little disappointed at how cakey it was.Does anyone have any suggestions for making it more dense, syrupy, and sticky and less like sweet cornbread?Otherwise very good, great flavor!!!”

“This recipe received the highest kudos – my Egyptian mother-in-law LOVED it, as did my hubby and all the parents at my son’s soccer camp.I plan to make it as often as I can, though I have to give it away since it’s so rich.Shukran Gazeelan!Thank you SO much.Ma’a salaama, Nancy”

“Thank you Najwa for a delicious and unusual cake recipe. I enjoyed the slightly chewy texture imparted by the semolina, and the sticky, moistness, provided by the syrup. My only complaint is that my family finished it off before I had a chance to have a second slice! Next time I will do as Mirj did, and make the syrup with orange juice.I made this as the dessert for a dinner party, and it was very well received, sweet but not too sweet with a great texture. For the dinner I served it with icecream, but DH asked me to make custard when he had some the next day, (we’d eaten a LOT that night which is the only reason it hadn’t been finished off!) and he liked it better that way. it was very easy to make and I ws very pleased with the result. Thanks for a great recipe :D”

“I posted earlier and I am afraid I accidentally gave it 1 star! It deserves at least 4. I combined this recipes with one entitles “basboosa II” and got good results.”

“I am doing a report on Egypt in school for sixth grade. We have a presentation, which involves bringing food in for the school to taste. When I found this desert, I was extremely excited! For my “test batch”, I only had to bake the cake for about thirty minutes, and it came out perfectly. I then made the syrup. I waited for it to cool before I put it in my bottle for drizzling, and it became hard in the pan. I was dissapointed that I could not use the syrup. The cake was delicious, however tasted a bit plain without the syrup, so instead I put jam on top. It was exquisite! For my real batch, I baked the cake in 160 mini cupcake liners, cut a slit diagnolly in the top, and filled the slit with jam. They looked amazing, and they were delicious! I still have lots of left over ingredients, so I plan on making this dessert again for my family. Thank you for this amazing recipe!”

“I just finished making this and had to try a little corner. It is delicious. I used the lemon and added a little bit of orange flower water since it is popular where I live. It does remind me of cornbread which I am very excited about. Thank you for a delicious recipe that is super easy to make abroad in Tunisia.”

“This turned out great – light and moist and oh so tasty. I put some flaked almonds on the top with the last of the syrup. The cakes looked and tasted lovely!”

“Tasty! It reminded me of a very good cornbread 🙂 It was great with coffee as well as with green tea. Thank you for the recipe.”

“I crave this dessert…I have friends that crave this dessert. It is amazing. Simple. Sugary sweet. Just plain good. Thank you so much for posting this! “