Basbousa

Desiccated coconut goes into the batter, and it is cut only after all the syrup has gone in.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (butter), dairy (yoghurt).

Ingredients

the cake

• 400 g coarse semolina
• 100 g desiccated coconut
• 200 g caster sugar
• 250 g thick yoghurt
• 150 g butter, melted
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 16 blanched almonds
• 2 tablespoons tahini, for the tin

the syrup

• 500 g caster sugar
• 400 ml water
• juice of ½ lemon
• 1 tablespoon orange blossom water

Method

1. DESICCATED COCONUT GOES INTO THE BATTER, and it is what makes this different from every other semolina cake in the region. A hundred grams against four hundred of semolina. It absorbs syrup differently from semolina -- holding it rather than swelling with it -- so the finished crumb is both wet and slightly chewy instead of uniformly soaked, and it gives a faint sweetness and aroma that reads immediately. A coconut-free version is a plain syrup semolina cake, which is a real thing and is not this.
2. IT IS SOAKED IN SYRUP, AND THE CAKE IS CUT ONLY AFTER ALL OF IT HAS GONE IN. That soaking is the defining fact about it: this site has a semolina cake that is deliberately NOT syruped, and the pair is the clearest illustration of how much difference the syrup makes. Here all four hundred millilitres of syrup go over the hot cake and are absorbed over four hours, and only then is it cut -- cut earlier, the pieces soak unevenly and the edges go to mush while the middles stay dry.
3. THE TIN IS GREASED WITH TAHINI. Two tablespoons rubbed over the base and sides. It stops the cake sticking and leaves a thin nutty crust, and it is the usual practice across these semolina cakes.
4. HOT CAKE, COOL SYRUP. The syrup made first and cooled completely, poured over the moment the tin leaves the oven. Hot syrup onto hot cake floods it and it collapses; cool syrup is drawn in while the crumb is still open.
5. IT IS SCORED INTO DIAMONDS BEFORE BAKING AND AN ALMOND PRESSED INTO EACH. Scored right through to the base. The cuts stay open because a semolina batter does not flow back, and they are the channels the syrup runs down to reach the bottom of the tin.
6. THE BATTER IS RESTED THIRTY MINUTES. Coarse semolina needs to take up the yoghurt or the baked cake is gritty. It thickens visibly.
7. IT IS COARSE SEMOLINA AND YOGHURT, NOT FINE SEMOLINA AND MILK. Coarse for the texture, yoghurt for the acid that works the baking powder and for the slight tang against all that sugar.
8. The syrup ingredients boiled 10 MINUTES, the blossom water stirred in off the heat, and LEFT TO COOL COMPLETELY.
9. The tin greased all over with the TAHINI.
10. The semolina, COCONUT, sugar and baking powder mixed, then the yoghurt, melted butter and vanilla stirred in.
11. RESTED 30 MINUTES -- it will thicken.
12. Spread level in the tin and SCORED into diamonds right through to the base. An ALMOND pressed into each.
13. Baked at 180°C for 35 to 40 MINUTES, until deep golden and firm.
14. The COOL syrup poured over the HOT cake, ALL of it, down the cut lines.
15. LEFT UNCOVERED 4 HOURS, until every drop has been absorbed.
16. ONLY THEN cut through on the score lines.
17. TESTED: the crumb should be evenly wet right to the centre and faintly chewy from the coconut. Dry middles mean it was cut too early.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Egypt · All recipes