Om Ali

The pastry is baked dry and broken up before any milk touches it, so it swells rather than dissolving.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (clotted cream), dairy (double cream), dairy (whole milk).

Ingredients

the pastry

• 500 g puff pastry, or 8 sheets of feteer

the milk

• 1.2 litres whole milk
• 200 ml double cream
• 150 g caster sugar
• 1 tablespoon orange blossom water

the nuts

• 80 g pistachios, chopped
• 80 g almonds, chopped
• 60 g hazelnuts, chopped
• 60 g desiccated coconut
• 60 g raisins

to finish

• 200 g clotted cream or qishta
• 2 tablespoons icing sugar

Method

1. THE PASTRY IS BAKED DRY AND BROKEN UP BEFORE ANY MILK TOUCHES IT, so it swells rather than dissolving. Rolled thin, baked on its own until crisp and deep golden, cooled, and then crushed into rough pieces with the hands. Only then does it go into the dish and the hot milk over it. A dry, baked, crisp pastry has a rigid structure that absorbs milk and swells into something soft but distinct; raw pastry put in milk turns to library paste, and part-baked pastry collapses. This is the step the whole dessert depends on and it is the one most often skipped by using shop puff pastry straight from the packet.
2. IT IS BROKEN BY HAND, NOT CHOPPED. Rough pieces of wildly different sizes, two or three centimetres down to crumbs. The unevenness is wanted: the big pieces stay chewy and the crumbs dissolve into the milk and thicken it, which is what gives the dish its body. Chopped evenly it sets as a uniform layer.
3. THE MILK GOES ON HOT AND THE DISH GOES STRAIGHT INTO THE OVEN. Scalded milk and cream with the sugar, poured over the pastry and nuts, and in at once. Hot milk starts the swelling immediately; left to cool on the pastry it soaks the top and leaves the bottom dry.
4. THE NUTS GO IN BETWEEN THE PASTRY, NOT ON TOP. Layered through -- pastry, nuts and coconut, more pastry, more nuts. On the surface they scorch in a hot oven and everything underneath is bland.
5. THE CLOTTED CREAM GOES ON IN SPOONFULS FOR THE LAST TEN MINUTES. Dropped over the top so it melts and browns in patches rather than disappearing. Stirred in at the start it is simply more fat in the milk.
6. IT IS BAKED UNTIL THE TOP IS BLISTERED AND BROWN. 200°C for twenty-five to thirty minutes. The contrast between a scorched, almost burnt surface and the soft swollen pastry beneath is most of the pleasure of it. Pale, it is just sweet wet pastry.
7. IT IS EATEN HOT, STRAIGHT FROM THE DISH. It does not keep or reheat -- the pastry goes on absorbing and by the next day it is a solid pudding.
8. The pastry rolled thin and baked at 200°C until CRISP and DEEP GOLDEN, about 20 MINUTES. COOLED COMPLETELY.
9. BROKEN UP BY HAND into rough uneven pieces, from 3 cm down to crumbs. Not chopped.
10. Half the pieces spread in a deep dish, then half the nuts, coconut and raisins, then the rest of the pastry and the rest of the nuts.
11. The milk, cream and sugar brought to a scald, the blossom water stirred in off the heat.
12. Poured HOT over the pastry and the dish put STRAIGHT into the oven.
13. Baked at 200°C for 20 MINUTES.
14. The clotted cream dropped over in SPOONFULS and baked a further 10 MINUTES, until the top is BLISTERED AND BROWN.
15. TESTED: the pastry should be swollen and distinct, not pasty, and the top properly browned.
16. Dusted with icing sugar and eaten HOT from the dish.

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