Şambali

It is cut into diamonds before it bakes, not after, so the syrup runs down the cuts.

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

Ingredients

the cake

• 400 g coarse semolina
• 300 g thick yoghurt
• 150 g caster sugar
• 100 ml sunflower oil
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 15 blanched almonds or pistachios

the syrup

• 550 g caster sugar
• 600 ml water
• juice of ½ lemon

to finish

• 3 tablespoons desiccated coconut

Method

1. IT IS CUT INTO DIAMONDS BEFORE IT BAKES, NOT AFTER, so the syrup runs down the cuts. The batter is spread in the tin and scored right through to the base into diamonds, and a nut is pressed into the centre of each. The cuts stay open through baking -- a semolina batter does not flow back together the way a flour cake would -- and they become channels. Syrup poured over then reaches the base of every piece instead of pooling on top of an uncut slab, which is the difference between a cake evenly soaked through and one that is wet on top and dry underneath.
2. IT IS COARSE SEMOLINA AND THAT IS THE POINT OF THE DISH. Four hundred grams of coarse semolina with no wheat flour at all. The texture is firm, dense and slightly gritty -- noticeably more substantial than the lighter semolina cakes it sits beside -- and flour would soften it into something ordinary.
3. THE BATTER IS RESTED THIRTY MINUTES BEFORE BAKING. The coarse grains need to take up moisture from the yoghurt or they stay hard and gritty in the finished cake. The batter visibly stiffens over that half hour.
4. THERE IS BOTH BAKING POWDER AND BICARBONATE, AND THE YOGHURT IS WHY. The yoghurt's acid reacts with the bicarbonate for an immediate lift; the baking powder works later in the oven. A dense semolina batter needs both or it bakes as a solid slab.
5. HOT CAKE, COOL SYRUP, AND ALL OF IT GOES ON. The syrup made first and cooled, poured over the moment the tin comes out, down the cut lines. All of it is absorbed over a few hours, so nothing is poured away.
6. IT IS LEFT FOUR HOURS AND THE CUTS ARE RUN THROUGH AGAIN AT THE END. A knife down the same lines before lifting the pieces out -- baking closes the very top of each cut slightly even though the body stays open.
7. The syrup ingredients boiled 12 MINUTES and LEFT TO COOL COMPLETELY.
8. The semolina, sugar, baking powder and bicarbonate mixed.
9. The yoghurt and oil stirred in to a thick batter.
10. RESTED 30 MINUTES -- it will visibly stiffen.
11. Spread level in a lined 30 x 20 cm tin.
12. SCORED RIGHT THROUGH to the base into diamonds, and a NUT pressed into the centre of each.
13. Baked at 180°C for 30 to 35 MINUTES, until golden and firm.
14. The COOL syrup poured over the HOT cake, down the cut lines, ALL of it.
15. Left UNCOVERED 4 HOURS.
16. The knife run down the same cut lines again before lifting out.
17. TESTED: a piece should be soaked right to its base and still faintly gritty. Dry underneath means the cuts did not go all the way through.
18. Scattered with coconut.

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 Turkey · All recipes