Basbousa
Basbousa (also known as Revani, Hareesa and Nammoura in various places) is a traditional Middle Eastern sweet moist cake, usually made with semolina and soaked in a simple syrup. The word ‘basbousa’ is Arabic for ‘Just a Kiss’, and this lovely cake certainly lives up to its’ name!
Ingredients
Ingredients for Basbousa
- 1 3/4 cups coarse semolina/sooji
- 1/4 cup all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 cup dessicated coconut
- 1/2 cup butter melted
- 1 cup plain yoghurt or you can mix half yoghurt and half milk
- 2 eggs lightly beaten
- 2 tsp vanilla essence
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup almonds blanched and peeled
Ingredients for Syrup
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1 1/4 cups water
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp vanilla or rosewater you can even use any other flavouring that you prefer, like saffron or cardamom
Instructions
- First, prepare the syrup. Combine the water, sugar and lemon juice in a small pan and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and gently simmer for about 5-8 minutes.Then turn off the heat, stir in the rosewater or vanilla essence and set the syrup aside to cool down.In a large bowl, mix together the semolina, flour, baking powder, sugar, coconut and salt. In a small jug, mix the liquid ingredients, yoghurt, melted butter, eggs and vanilla. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and then gradually add the liquid ingredients while mixing with a spatula or wooden spoon to form a thick batter.Pour and level out the batter in a greased 11×7 inch pan and lightly score the top with diamond or square shaped cuts. Press a whole almond in the middle of each square or diamond. Then cover and set the pan aside for half an hour. This helps the semolina to absorb the liquids. In the meantime, preheat the oven at 180 C.Uncover the pan and bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes. Then remove from the oven and carefully cut all the way through the marks you had made earlier. Pour the cooled syrup as evenly as possible all over the hot basbousa. Then place the pan back in the oven and bake for an additional 5 minutes. Remove and let it rest for at least 30 minutes before cutting out the pieces and serving.Enjoy! 🙂
Aa
Aa
Can i use margarine instead of butter
Yes you can although the
Yes you can although the flavour will not be as good as when you use butter.
asslamo alikum
asslamo alikum
do u have recipe of( imarti sweet) like a jalebi traditional pakistani sweet…..
W/Salaam, sorry don’t know
W/Salaam, sorry don’t know what imarti sweet means.
I couldnt get coarse semolina
I couldnt get coarse semolina i dnt even think they have that in mombasa its just regular semolina what should I do?
It’s ok, you can use the
It’s ok, you can use the regular one. 🙂
Made it! Verrrryyyyyyy
Made it! Verrrryyyyyyy yummmyyy!!! Thumbs up for Basbousa!!!
Can we use baking soda
Can we use baking soda instead of baking powder?
No, for this recipe you need
No, for this recipe you need baking powder not soda.
Assalamu alaikum. Can I bake
Assalamu alaikum. Can I bake the sweet and serve it after 24 hours? Wouldn’t the coconut in it get spoiled ?
W/Salaam, no in fact it
W/Salaam, no in fact it tastes better the following day. Cooked coconut does not spoil that fast, it will be fine for up to 5 days, longer if refrigerated.
Mashaallah the basbousa was
Mashaallah the basbousa was amazingly delicious!!
Jazaakillahu kheyr
I love your blog, may Allah
I love your blog, may Allah reward you hear in Dunia and akhera.
Thank you and Ameen!
Thank you and Ameen!
Salaam aleykum Fauzia. What
Salaam aleykum Fauzia. What is semolina. I live in Seattle WA and don’t know if I can find it. Or what can I substitute with.
W/Salaam, semolina is a
W/Salaam, semolina is a coarse ground wheat. It should be very easily available, please check your local supermarkets next to the flours or grains sections or ask someone to assist you in locating it. 🙂
Assalamu alaykum, can I use
Assalamu alaykum, can I use sweeten yoghurt instead of plain yoghurt?
W/Salaam, the recipe works
W/Salaam, the recipe works best with plain natural yoghurt.
Plain yoghurt is not
Plain yoghurt is not available in my country can I use curd?
Yes that should be fine.
Yes that should be fine.
Made it yesterday , it was
Made it yesterday , it was delicious. Jazakallaah khayr
This turned out to be amazing
This turned out to be amazing too. Thank u so so much. Can u please make umm e ali and share ur recipe with us. Thank u
Very sweet and lovely! It was
Very sweet and lovely! It was my first recipe using sooji.
Does the baking time change
Does the baking time change if I use only half the quantity of all the ingredients?
No, the baking time remains
No, the baking time remains the same.
MashaAllah. Tried yr recipe
MashaAllah. Tried yr recipe today and it turned out awesome. Jazak Allah e khairun. May God Bless you. Ameen.
AoA fauzia jst 1 question? I
AoA fauzia jst 1 question? I used 3/4 cup castor sugar and felt it was a bit low on sweetness, does the recipe call for castor or granulated sugar? If using castor sugar what should be the quantity? Hope you’d reply, jazakallah.
I use granulated sugar. You
I use granulated sugar. You can increase the sugar to 1 cup if you feel that it is less sweet for your taste.
Assalamalaikum Fauzia , can
Assalamalaikum Fauzia , can you please give an egg less version of this recipe.
Jazakallah khair
W/Salaam, will try inshaAllah
W/Salaam, will try inshaAllah.
Asak Fauzia, Can we add
Asak Fauzia, Can we add condensed milk instead of sugar in this recipe?
No, it will not give you the
No, it will not give you the same results as the consistency of the batter will change.
Thanks so much for sharing
Thanks so much for sharing your wonderful recipes with us! Just one question…Can you use Greek yoghurt, or is it too thick? Thanks!
It is a bit too thick for
It is a bit too thick for this recipe, but if you have no other option you could use it.
i dont like coconut. can i omit it？
Yes you can.