Almond Crescents

  A simple, soft, delicious recipe

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cup Flour
1 cup Ground Almond
1/2 cup Sugar
3/4 cup Butter
3 Eggs
1 tbsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Vanilla


  Mix all ingredients together until it becomes a workable dough.
Pinch a small amount, roll it between your hands and form a crescent shape.

Place on a greased baking sheet. Bake at 350C (gas mark 5) for 10 – 12min. 

Let it cool and sprinkle with icing sugar. Sahtein!

Bascot Sikar Asmar (Brown Sugar Cookies)

A simple cookie recipe......

Ingredients:
4 cups Flour
2 cups Brown Sugar
1 cup Butter
2 Eggs
4 teaspoons Baking Powder

Handful of Walnuts for decoration

Mix all ingredients together to form a dough.

Roll into a thick roll. Wrap it tight with cling film. 

Put in fridge for 20-30 min.

 Take out of fridge. Cut it into ½ cm thick slice.

Put them on a greased baking tray.
Leave space between the cookies.

Decorate each biscuit with a half of a walnut.

 Bake in preheated oven gaz mark 6 (200C/ 400F) for 15-20 min

or until they are done.

Sahtein!

Joz ElHind ( Coconut Balls)

Simple recipe with simple ingredients for a great taste for coconut lovers!!

Ingredients:

1 tin (400ml) Condensed Milk (I used Light!)

400g Desiccated Coconut

1 tablespoon Butter (melted)

Few drops of Vanilla

Handful of peeled Almond ( for decoration)

Mix coconut, milk, butter and vanilla together. Rest the mix for 20 min.

Pinch a bit of dough and roll it up to a ball between your hands and then place it in a greased or greaseproof paper lined baking tray. Place an almond on top of each ball and press it down a bit.

Bake in hot oven (gas mark 6) for 5-10 min or until slightly golden. Delicious!!

Sahtein!!

Bascot ElQuaker (Oat Cookies)

 Bascot ElQuaker was my Dad’s favourite type of cookies. He introduced us to oats and porridge after his trip to the UK...

Ingredients:

3 cups Flour

1½ cup Butter (softned)

2 cups Sugar

2 cups Oats

1 cup Walnuts

1 cup Raisins

3 Eggs

2 teaspoon Cinnamon

2 teaspoon Baking Powder

Pinch of salt

4 tablespoon of sugar with ½ tsp of cinnamon (for decoration)

     Rub flour, oats and butter between your hands.

 Add the rest of ingredients and mix all together to make dough. Mix sugar & cinnamon (for decoration) in tea saucer. Pinch a bit of dough and roll it up into a ball between your hands.

Then flatten it a bit. Dip it in the tea saucer so the top of the cookie is coated with the sugar mix.

Place it on greased baking tray. Repeat until the tray is full, leaving some space between the cookies.

 Bake in preheated oven gas mark 6(200C/ 400F) for 15-20 mins or until they are done. 

Bascot bil Custard (Custard Cookies)

I love this recipe at it is very simple and the cookies have a great texture. I couldn’t stop myself from eating a couple hot from the oven...

Ingredients:

1 cup Custard powder

½ cup Sugar powdered

½ cup Butter softened

1½ cup Flour

1 Egg

Cream the butter & sugar together. Add the egg. Sift the flour & custard powdered together. Add to the butter mixture and mix well.

Using a cookie maker (cookie press) or a cookie cutter, cut out cookies and arrange on lightly greased baking tray. You can make any shape you like.

Bake for 10-15 min in preheated oven gas mark 6 (390F – 200C).

If you like to make it chocolaty, add 2 tablespoon of Cocoa powder to the ingredients (instead of 2 tablespoon of flour to keep the dough consistency).

Bascot bil Yansoun ( Aniseed Biscuits)

This is a very old recipe that I copied ages ago from my mum’s cookbook. Mum used to make it long time ago, I didn’t remember how it tasted, so I had to try it for myself and it was a great success! Simple and yet full of flavour, scrumptious!

Ingredients:

4 cups Flour

1 cup Sugar

¾ cup Sunflower oil

1 Egg

2 teaspoon Baking Powder

¼ cup Aniseed

A bit of water (if needed)

     Mix all ingredients together. Add a bit of water if needed to get a good dough consistency.

Take a bit of dough, roll it into a long thin rope & cut it into a 10cm length piece. Pinch both ends of each piece together into a ring. You can do any shape you prefer.

Then place the biscuits on a greased or greaseproof paper lined baking tray, leaving some space between the biscuits.

Bake in preheated oven gas mark 6 (200C/ 400F) for 15-20 mins or untill they are done. Sahtein!

Maamoul

Maamoul is Lebanese shortbread pastry filled with dates, walnuts, pistachios or almonds. Our Family Maamoul is stuffed with a mix of pistachio, walnuts and almonds all together! The taste is so distinctive! Also, instead of using the maamoul molds, mum used to make us all help out decorating the maamoul using special brass tweezers.

Ingredients:

Dough:

1kg fine Semolina

½ kg Butter melted
1/2 cup Flour

½ cup mixed Rose Water

½ cup Orange Blossom Water

1 tablespoon of dried Yeast (I used dried instant Yeast)

Nuts filling:

1 cup Pistachios

1 cup Walnuts 

Maamoul molds (only had 2 designs out of 3)
& brass tweezers

 1 cup Almonds

1 cup sugar

3 tablespoon Rose Water

3 tablespoon Orange Blossom Water

Dates Filling:

500g Dates

½ cup Butter

½ teaspoon Miskeh/ Mastic

Mix fine semolina, melted butter and yeast together. Add Rose water and Orange blossom water gradually to make a dough and knead for a minute or two to be sure the dough is well blended. Cover dough and let stand for at least one hour.

Ground together all the nuts. Mix together ground nuts, sugar, rose water and orange blossom water till the mixture is crumbling together. Set aside.
Mix together dates, butter and mistek so that that mixture is like dough. Set aside.
Now we have both fillings ready. You will have enough dough to use  both of these fillings. Preheat the oven to gas mark 6 or 400F (200C).
Grease cookies sheet, or line with greaseproof paper.

 Knead dough again briefly, and form into walnut sized balls. Make a hole in the centre using your finger.

Fill the hole with a teaspoon of the nut mixture (or dates mixture), and seal the dough up over the hole.

Gently form into balls. Place into the maamoul mold , press in gently; level it up with the mold. Turn it round and gently tap on the worktop & the maamoul will come out. 

If you don’t have a mold you can make designs with brass tweezers or simply with a fork.  

Maamoul with dates

Maamoul with mixed nuts

 

   

Place it on baking tray, keep spaces between the maamoul.

Bake for 10 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until lightly browned. Dust with powdered sugar while still warm if desired.

Usually we dust the maamoul stuffed with nuts and not the dates ones.

  

Snow Balls

I learned how to make this recipe from Aunt Jessy....I love this recipe because it is easy to make and taste amazingly good!!

Ingredients:

½ cup Powdered Sugar

1 cup Butter

1 cup Ground Nuts (Ground Almonds is my favourite!)

1 ¾ cup Flour

1 tsp Vanilla

Preaheat  oven to  gaz mark 5 (350F).  

Mix all ingredients together till you  have soft dough.

 Pinch a bit of dough and roll it up to a ball between your hands  and then place it on greased or greaseproof paper lined the baking tray. Repeat until the tray is full, leaving some space between the cookies. It makes about 30 balls.  Let it stand for 1hr. Bake on medium heat oven for 15-20 min or until golden. 

Before serving, sprinkle generously with powdered sugar.

Baskot bil Debs (Carob Molasses Biscuits)

Old family recipe, pretty simple, very healthy and not too sweet...

Ingredients:

1 cup Butter

4 cups Flour

1 cup Debs el Kharob (Carob Molasses)

1 tsp Ginger

2 tsp Baking Powder

Rub butter & flour together in hands. Add debs (carob molasses), ginger & baking powder. Make it into soft dough. Divide the mixture in half. Roll each half into a big chunky rope.

 Put in freezer for 10 min till it becomes a sligthly hard as it will be easier to cut. Cut it into 1/2 cm slice.

Each half makes around 20 biscuits. 

 Put on greased or greaseproof paper lined baking tray in hot oven for
 10-15 minutes.

Satein! Bon Appetit!

Kaak Me'me' ( Me'me''s Cookies)

 These cookies are not too sweet.........perfect with a cup of coffee or tea... good anytime of the day!

Ingredients:

  

500g Flour

500g Ferkha ( Fine Semolina)

400 g Butter

400g Sugar

250 ml Milk

1 Tbsp instant dried Yeast (= 30 g fresh yeast)

1 tsp Mahlab

1 tsp Miskeh (Mastic pound into powder with a bit of sugar)

1 tsp Ground Aniseed 

1 tsp Ground Nutmeg

1 tsp Ground Cloves

 Mix all ingredients together to make it into a soft dough. Cover with towel. Let it rest for ½hr- 1hr. Preheat oven to a gaz mark 6 or 400F. Roll into a long rope up to 1cm thick and cut it into pieces about 8cm long, join the edges into a circle shape or cut them into pieces around 6cm long and leave them straight. Place on greased or parchment paper lined baking tray. Bake in medium hot oven for 10-15 min or until cookies are golden.

Krass Bil Samneh ( Butter Biscuit- no sugar)

 Traditionally, Krass Bil Samneh is eaten during Easter and especially on Easter day for breakfast with coloured boiled eggs. I like it with cheese and my favourite is eating it with dark chocolates! if you dont like dark chocolate , you can substitute it for milk chocolate!!

Ingredients:

700g Ferkha (Fine Semolina)
300g Flour

300g Butter

1 tsp dried Yeast  (I use 1 sachet of fast action Yeast) = 15g fresh yeast

1 Tbsp Mahlab
1 tsp Miskeh / Mastic  (pound into powder with a bit of sugar)

Salt

Water (as much needed)

Mix all ingredients together till it becomes a soft dough. Take a handfull of the dough and roll it into a big round circle of approx 15 cm diameter. Poke them in the middle with fork, circle or any other shape. Twist the edges or leave them flat, make the design your own :) The poking is to avoid the biscuits rising. Cover with a kitchen towel and leave them to rest for 2hrs. Then cook in medium hot oven gas mark 6 (200C=400F) for about 20 mins or once you feel the biscuit is done.