Basboosa / Basbousa / Semolina Cake – Celebration Time!!

    Hooraaay!  It’s celebration time! Guess what??????? Today marks the first anniversary of our blog and we have this feeling that we were doing this for a long time! This blog has been a part and parcel of our life for a year and we presented you 175 different recipes. Unbelievable! When we started out, we had to literally beg our  close friends to follow and try out recipes from our space :), but then after a while things changed, and amazingly we started getting huge response that motivated us to post more and more yummy recipes!  We have always tried to post recipes that were easy to follow and cook so that anybody with a little patience can cook yummy food and delight their loved ones !

  We just have no words to express our heartfelt thanks to every one who supported us – our husbands, family, friends, fellow bloggers, subscribers, readers, everyone! Special thanks to the readers and bloggers who tried and gave their feedback on our recipes. Hope you will continue to support us with your comments / suggestions.

  And this year, God willing, I am planning to go beyond the nadan recipes and post varieties of recipes from around the world ( especially Mediterranean, Thai and Ethiopian which are my favorite cuisines ) and of course more bakes,  healthy recipes and recipes from other states of India, that are easy to prepare and tasty as well. After-all, variety is the spice of life!

  To celebrate this special occasion, we would love to share the recipe for an Egyptian dessert named Basboosa. It is basically semolina cake that has been soaked in a sugar/honey syrup. This dessert is supposed to be really sweet  and it tastes best that way, but you can adjust the quantity of sugar that goes into the syrup, if you want a less sweeter version. Like most of our other recipes, this one was also taste checked by my friends and have won their approval :). In fact it is an extremely tasty one and the recipe is very easy to follow. You are going to love it!!

Ingredients

Plain Semolina / sooji  / rava – 1.5 cup

Butter – 1 stick or 1/2 cup, softened (If you do not want it to be very rich, you can try adding only 1/2 stick or 1/4 cup. I have tried this recipe twice and the second time I used only 1/4 cup butter but adding 1/2 cup makes it more rich and tasty.)

Sugar – 1/2 cup

Plain yoghurt – 1 cup

Baking powder – 1 tsp

Vanilla extract – 1 tsp

For the honey syrup

Honey – 1/2 cup

Sugar – 3/4 cup

Rose water – 3 tbsp or 1 tsp rose essence

Lemon juice – 2 tsp

Method

1. Cream  the butter and 1/2 cup sugar using an electric mixer. Add yoghurt and vanilla extract. Beat until combined. Now add the semolina flour and baking powder. Mix well with a spatula until you have a sticky dough. Let it rest for 30 minutes.

2. Preheat an oven to 375 F. Transfer the dough into a well-greased 7 x 11 inch baking dish or a 10 inch round cake pan and level the dough using your fingers/spatula.

3. Bake for 20 minutes. Take out the baking dish using your oven mitts. Now cut the partially baked dough to squares or diamonds. Press an almond or any nut you prefer onto each diamond. Now return the baking dish back into the oven and bake for another 13 – 15 minutes till the edges are brown. Now put it on broil mode for 2 – 3 minutes so that surface will turn golden brown. Take it out of the oven.

3. Meanwhile combine the honey,  sugar and 2 tbsp rose water in a saucepan. Stir at medium-low heat until the  sugar dissolves and the mixture has a syrupy consistency ( would not take more than  7 – 10 minutes). Add the lemon juice and 1 tbsp rose water. Turn off the stove. When the basboosa is done in the oven, take it out using your oven mitts. Pour the honey syrup all over the hot basboosa. Cool and take out the cakes from the baking dish using a metal spatula. It tastes best after 1 – 2 days. Enjoy!!

Tips:

1. You can use sugar syrup instead of honey syrup.

Recipe for sugar syrup:

Sugar – 3/4 cup

Water – 3/4 cup

Lemon juice – 2 tsp

Rose water – 3 tbsp or rose essence – 1 tsp

Combine the sugar and water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil stirring occasionally at medium-low heat. When the sugar is dissolved completely, add the lemon juice ( to prevent crystallization). Boil for about 4 – 5 minutes or until it has a syrupy consistency and add the rose water. Mix well and switch off. Pour on the baked diamonds. Cool down and enjoy!!

Love

Maya