Basboosa

Mirj's Note:

Basboosa are thin semolina squares covered in a honey and lemon syrup. Very Middle Eastern, this goes great with some sweet Turkish coffee or some mint tea.

• Total Time: 1 hrs 5 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 50 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 24

Syrup

• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups water
• 1 whole lemon
• 3 teaspoons honey

Basboosa

• 3 cups semolina
• 1 cup flour
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup oil
• 1 cup milk

Directions:

1. To make the syrup: Peel the lemon with a potato peeler to get flat strips of peel.
2. Juice the lemon.
3. Bring the sugar, water, and lemon juice to a boil.
4. Throw in the rind of the lemon.
5. Boil until the lemon rind is hard or the mixture is a runny syrup consistency.
6. Add the honey.
7. Set aside while you make the basboosa.
8. Mix the semolina, flour, sugar, and baking powder.
9. Add the oil and mix until all the batter is well blended.
10. Grease a large cookie sheet tray (10 x 16 inches).
11. Add the milk just before you are about to bake.
12. Dot the mixture into the greased pan by spoonfuls.
13. Level the mixture with your hand (dipped in milk).
14. Shake the tray to level.
15. Bake for 1/2 hour at 350 degrees.
16. Cut into squares and return to the oven for 5-10 minutes.
17. Pour the syrup over the basboosa immediately after you remove it from the oven the last time.

Reviews

[Doraholix]

Hmmm, wasn't like the Basboosa we make/are used to... Syrup's the same, but I make the cake with 1 cup semolina, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup yogurt, 2 tbs baking powder, 1 cup butter.

[TanyaM]

My family liked it very much, but I didn't make exactly as Mirj's recipe says. I add half of liter of yoghurt (with almost one full cup of milk). Still I feel it was a little too dry for my taste. so next time (as I said, they liked it very much), I'll make nearly twice as much syrup and leave it over night to soak. And it's definitely not too much lemon, not even with all that yoghurt.

[yelinka]

I did not like it. It is not even close to a real basboosa, it was not even slightly fluffy. My advise is to use 2 cups plain yoghurt, but not milk, then basboosa is not hard. And do not use this huge amount of lemon juice, 1-2 teaspoons are enough.