Aish as-Saraya

There is no egg and no butter in it at all — the body is breadcrumbs soaked in caramel syrup.

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

Ingredients

the base

• 300 g dry white breadcrumbs, from a crustless loaf

the caramel syrup

• 400 g caster sugar
• 4 tablespoons water, for the caramel
• 500 ml hot water
• juice of ½ lemon
• 1 tablespoon orange blossom water

the cream layer

• 600 g clotted cream, or thick qishta

to finish

• 4 tablespoons pistachios, coarsely ground

Method

1. THERE IS NO EGG AND NO BUTTER IN IT AT ALL, and the body is breadcrumbs soaked in caramel syrup. That absence is worth stating because every instinct says a set bread dessert must be a custard. This one is not: dry breadcrumbs, a dark caramel let down into a syrup, and cream on top. The crumbs take up the syrup and set, as they cool, into a dense sliceable layer the colour of treacle -- no eggs to curdle, nothing to bake, and no oven involved at any point. It is also why it tastes clean and intensely of caramel rather than rich.
2. THE SUGAR IS TAKEN TO A GENUINELY DARK CARAMEL, PAST WHERE IT FEELS SAFE. Sugar and four tablespoons of water, swirled not stirred, until it is the colour of an old penny and just beginning to smoke at the edges. That bitterness is the whole flavour of the dish, and it has to stand up to four hundred grams of sugar's sweetness. A pale golden caramel gives something sweet and characterless.
3. THE HOT WATER GOES INTO THE CARAMEL AND IT WILL ERUPT. Five hundred millilitres, poured in with the pan off the heat, at arm's length. It spits violently and the caramel seizes into a solid lump; returned to a low heat and stirred, the lump dissolves back into a smooth dark syrup over a couple of minutes. Cold water makes it worse and can crack the pan.
4. THE CRUMBS ARE DRY AND FINE AND FROM A CRUSTLESS LOAF. Dried out in a low oven and blitzed. Fresh crumbs turn to glue; crusts stay as hard brown specks through the finished layer.
5. IT IS PRESSED LEVEL AND CHILLED BEFORE THE CREAM GOES ON. The soaked crumbs spread in a dish, pressed firmly with the back of a spoon, and chilled two hours until set. Cream spread onto a warm loose base sinks into it and the two layers become one.
6. THE CREAM GOES ON COLD AND THICK AND IS NOT SWEETENED. Six hundred grams, spread in a thick even layer. It is the only thing standing against a very sweet base, and sweetening it removes the contrast the dessert is built on.
7. The breadcrumbs dried in a low oven and blitzed FINE. No crusts.
8. The sugar and the 4 tablespoons of water heated WITHOUT STIRRING, swirled, to the colour of an OLD PENNY and just beginning to smoke.
9. THE PAN TAKEN OFF THE HEAT and the 500 ml of HOT water poured in AT ARM'S LENGTH -- it will spit and seize.
10. Returned to a low heat and stirred until the lump dissolves to a smooth dark syrup. The lemon juice and blossom water added.
11. The breadcrumbs stirred in and cooked 3 to 4 MINUTES until they have drunk the syrup and the mixture pulls away from the pan.
12. Spread into a shallow dish and PRESSED LEVEL with the back of a spoon.
13. CHILLED 2 HOURS until set and firm.
14. The clotted cream spread over in a thick even layer, UNSWEETENED.
15. Chilled a further 1 HOUR.
16. TESTED: a slice should hold two distinct layers and the base should taste bitter-dark as well as sweet. A pale sweet base means the caramel did not go far enough.
17. Scattered with pistachios and cut cold.

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 Lebanon · All recipes