Charak El-Aryaan (The bare crescent)

By Za. 

Recipe coming up soon!

Mshuwek (Spiky Almond cookies)

By Za, 

Recipe coming up soom

Maqroot El-Looz! (Almond Lozenges)

By Za, 

Recipe coming up soon! 

Chocolate Urchins!

You like Chocolate? here's one for you. These little Chocolate urchins are both soft and crunchy. They're great to offer to friends in fancy cake cases. They may look evil but as soon as u take your first bite, you just won't want to stop. 

What you need is: 

• 1 cup of sugar. 
• 250g unsalted butter. 
• 2 tbsp of honey. 
• 3 tbsp of cocoa. 
• Vanilla
• 1 sachet of baking powder. 
• 2 or 3 eggs. 
• Flour ( enough to get the batter assembled into a dough)

How to make it: 

Mix the sugar and butter till cream. Add the eggs, honey and cocoa and mix well. ( I don't have a food processor so I use a whisk to mix) you can use 1/2 sachet of the baking powder. No need for a whole one. Then, start adding the flour bit by bit until you get a very fluffy and soft dough. ( non-sticky too). 

Make small balls, place them on a baking tray and chuck in the (pre-heated)  oven. ( I usually check on them after 20mins on a 150 C) 

 

      

Meanwhile, make your chocolate frosting. 

I just melt some chocolate tablets with a tiny teeny bit of butter and a table spoon or two of milk. 

Dip the ready baked cookies upside down into the chocolate frosting then sprinkle them with chocolate vermicelli to give them an urchin stylish look! 

let the chocolate cool and harden before serving. 

    

et voila! 

Bsahatkom - Enjoy - Bon appetit! :) 

Croquet: Crunchy Breakfast

By Za,  

Croquet is very popular in Algies, lots of people love it. Women and bakeries make it almost regularly for breakfast or afternoon coffee/tea.. 
It goes fantastically well with 'coffee with milk' in the morning. quiet filling.
It looks a bit like Biscotti but they are not bread. They belong to the 'cake' family. 

Ingredients: 

• 1 yogurt pot of eggs (I used 2 eggs) ( you can use a bowl, a cup, a glass of water, a mug or a yogurt pot just like what I used today.)
• 1 yogurt pot of sugar (I used the same yogurt pot for measuring most of these ingredients) 
• 1 yogurt pot of oil
• 1 tsp of vanilla
• 1/2 sachet of baking powder. 
• 1 tsp of lemon zest
• Flour (just add till the dough's no longer sticky but far from being hard.) 

This is the result 

In a big bowl,

Put the eggs and sugar and mix well. 
Add the oil and mix more. 
Add the vanella, baking powder and lemon zest and mix. 
Now start adding the flour bit by bit till you have an extremely soft and non-sticky dough. 
Dust your tray with flour and flatten your dough a little bit length-ways (lengthwise). (see picture= 2 to 2.5cm/=1 inch high) 
Glaze with egg yolks (I only used one and I don't add any milk to it in order to get a mahogany golden shire glaze, But you could thin down the egg yold by adding a tiny bit of milk.You could also add a tea spoon of coffee) use a brush to coat your dough first then a fork to lightly scratch the surface forming multiple parallel rail-like looking lines. ( see picture) 

Chuck it in your preheated oven (I put it on 150C) 

Take it out when it's doubled in size and the glaze's gone golden ( I leave it baking 15- 20mins)

 cut it width-wise  
Leave it to cool 

It should be dry and breaks easily into crumbs/ crispy.


Bsahatkom - Enjoy - Bon appetit 

Jeljlania (sesame balls)

By Za, 

One of the special delights Eid brings about in Algeria is the joy of making, and most importantly eating several hundreds of diverse kinds of cookies, sweets, cakes and patisseries. Most families would make a roughly average of 7 to 10 kinds of cookies. These are offered to other family members, guests, friends and neighbours. My highest record of cookie making has always been 4 (attained last year). This year, though, I only got around to making two varieties of which I'd like to share one today. 


I got to know this recipe thanks to mum. The first time I got introduced to the Jeljlania, I knew straight away  it was  'love at first sight'. My feelings were intensely confirmed when I tasted it. Everything about me melted then. (well, I also kind of got badly told off after a few minutes when mum found out I had hoovered up all the rest of the Jeljlania stashed in the cupboard. I got ball chained away it them every time I'd come within a reaching distance.) 


So if you don't know what I'm talking about, let me shed some light into your gastronomic world, by introducing you to this simple yet tasty sesame balls. 




I you're interesting in making it, next time you go to the market, make sure you toss the following ingredients in you shopping basket: 

• 1kg white Flour
• Unsalted buter (500g) 
• 2 cups of icing sugar
• 1 sachet of baking powder
• 2 tea spoons of vanilla. 
• 6 egg whites. 
• Sesame 
• Orange floral water. 
• Medium cake cases
• Honey 

In your working lab: 

Mix the butter and the icing sugar well, till they form a light-colored cream. 
Add the egg whites, baking powder and vanilla, and mix well.
Pour flour till you gather the dough. don't work or knead it. 
Make a few small balls from the batch. 
In a preheated pan, put the sesame and grill it by just stirring it over and over continually until they gain a golden brown color. 

Dip the balls in the orange floral water (or egg whites) then roll them around in a bowl full of grilled sesame. 
Place them in the cake cases and chuck them in the preheated oven (I put it on 150C). 
Check on them from time to time. 
PS: do not open the oven until after 20mins of baking. they'll puff up and double in size. 
Get them out when they are cooked (I always sacrifice one by digging the tip of a knife in it to check) 
make sure you've put your honey (add a tiny bit of water to it) in a cassrole to bring it to a boil, so that, when you get your cookies out, you spoon water them with that boiling honey. 
They'll absorb it all and become more tender as a result. 


Let cool and enjoy. 


Bsahatkom. 

Coming soon, in-sha'a-llah Eid mini fruit tarts 

Gran's lozenges (Braaj)

By Za, 

Braaj are some date paste sandwiched in a shortbread semolina. I discovered these sweet munchies from my gran. She used to make to welcome and celebrate the coming of Spring. It was a tradition she had kept running for many years. Too bad, it wasn't perpetuated by her children. I decided to make them and keep the tradition as a tribute to her :)
Kids absolutely love Braaj, and so do all Algerians. 

I would like to offer these Algerian traditional baby “date sandwiches” to her, yous lot reader and all date lovers, for the coming season of Spring.

"Note that Algerian traditional recipes measure the volume of ingredients and not their weight. The idea is to take any measure , be it a cup, a glass or a big container , fill it three time with the dry ingredients (semoulina in this case) and one time with fat ( butter, ghee, etc….) the choice of the measure will determine the quantity of the pastry…..if you want a small quantity, choose a small container, and vice-versa" Kaouther 

What you need is: 

• Semolina – Medium (2 full British mugs measure) - that's what i use for measuring
• Salt (a pinch) 
• Ghee+oil ( ½ a British mug measure) 
• Orange blossom water diluted in water ( enoughto gather the mixture into a dough)

Stuffing:

• Date paste (worked) - wet my hands with water to work and flatten it. It makes it less sticky :o) 

The Method:

For the dough, put your semolina in a bowl.

Add salt and ghee and mix very well.

Rub it continually between your palms to make sure the grease is integrated in and fully incorporated with the semolina.

You should have a mixture that feels like wet sand.

Let it rest 15 to 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, work the dates paste. Just knead it a little bit to remove any bits of bones or hard flakes. 

 If you find it sticky or hard, use some oil or water to work it easily or steam it a little to turn it softer.

When you’re done with the paste, to back to your semolina and gather it with some water to get a breaking dough like this. (don't knead it too much) 

Split it into two equal halves. (pic ==>) 

___________________________________ooOoO0OoOoo_________________________________

1- Flatten the first half - 8 milimetres thick.

2- Flatten the dates paste as thin as you want it to be ( 3mm)

3- Lay the flat date paste on the first flattened half of dough and cover it with the second flattened half of dough creating a sandwich as illustrated in the pictures. (4)
give it a last roll with the rolling pin to flatten everything and stick it all together. 

 In the final stage, cut the sandwich however you like. I love lozenge shaped Braaj. That’s how my gran used to cut them. Algerian's are big fans of lozenge/diamond shapes and they shape most of their food/sweets into that.  
But you can make them square, round, triangle, pentagon or star ..have fun  and go crazy with your cookie cutters heh! 

Preheat your pan or tawa and cook them both sides till they gain a red-ish colour.

Eat with milk, curd milk, tea or some coffee.
We tend to eat them for breakfast and afternoon tea/coffee. 


PS: Some people have sensitive stomach. Thus, end up suffering from heart-burns after consuming LOTS of braaj :P .. don't panic, it's normal. Just drink some cold milk - a cup or so, and you should feel better after a couple of seconds :o) 

Bsahatkom- Enjoy - Bon appetit  :)