Basbousa recipe

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Rating:

5/ 5 stars 91 Votes
  • Cuisine: Egyptian

This sweet semolina cake with rose water and lemon syrup is very popular in Egypt and throughout the Middle East. It is normally baked in a large tray, cut into diamond shapes with an almond on each piece, and finally soaked with the deliciously sweet syrup.

Ingredients

2 ½ cups coarse semolina
1 cup desiccated coconut
1 cup caster sugar
½ cup self-raising flour
200g thick yoghurt
200g unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract
approx 25 blanched almonds
Milk if needed

Syrup

1 ½ cups caster sugar
1 cup water
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp rosewater

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Preparation

Mix the semolina, coconut, sugar, flour, yoghurt,melted butter and vanilla in a bowl. If the mixture is too thick, add a little milk. Spread in a greased baking tray and cut into diamond shapes. Place one blanched almond in the centre of each diamond. Bake in an oven at 190C for 35-40 min until golden brown.

Syrup
Meanwhile, stir sugar and water until sugar dissolves, then simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in the lemon juice and rosewater. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.

Pour the syrup over the cake while the cake is still hot and let it stand until it reaches room temperature. Serve.
 

If you enjoyed this Basbousa recipe then browse more Egyptian recipes, dessert recipes and our most popular hainanese chicken rice recipe.

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Comments (20)

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19 Apr 2012 10:24 AEST
Belinda
Bell Park
Soooooo good!
Oh wow! This recipe is so easy (even a water burner could make it!) and it tastes sooo good! It is super sweet, so it wouldn't be a problem to reduce the sugar. I didn't have any lemon juice for the syrup, so I used lime instead and it was still brilliant. I also love vanilla, so added a dash of extract in the syrup as well. Fabulous recipe - vanishes quickly! Everyone I shared it with loved it, although my father did think it would be better without the "pot pourri" (AKA rosewater, hehe!)
Agree(0 people agree)
Disagree(0 people disagree)
14 Feb 2012 11:36 AEST
tamski
Sydney
The Best
Most positively, this is a great recipe. We make it regularly in our home. The best basbousa recipe found. Easy to prepare, children help in the kitchen. So, our 'friend ' sana from calgary. Check your grammar, English, oh yes, don't forget your ignorance as well. And on Australia Day. Oh, pl-ea-se :-)
Agree(1 people agree)
Disagree(3 people disagree)
03 Feb 2012 03:16 AEST
Sandy Tasha
Frankston
Delicious Basbousa
I made this Basbousa to share with friends at work. The sweet wonderful aroma really works. Everyone was so keen to taste it. Basbousa cake tastes really good, everyone at work was happy with the aroma, the flavour and also the syrup. Just beautiful. Thanks for the recipe.
Agree(2 people agree)
Disagree(2 people disagree)
26 Jan 2012 10:22 AEST
sana
CALGARY
get educated dear
Egypt is not one of the poorest country of the world, Egypt is the cradle of civilization and there live some of the most educated and rich people, before starting a site like this get some education so you dont look as ignorant as you do now
Agree(3 people agree)
Disagree(3 people disagree)
29 Dec 2011 11:49 AEST
sarah
point cook
yummy
made this a few times. love it. very easy and quick to make
Agree(1 people agree)
Disagree(1 people disagree)
29 Aug 2011 12:01 AEST
rafia
india
AGREE
GOOOOOD
Agree(0 people agree)
Disagree(1 people disagree)
03 Jul 2011 02:26 AEST
tani
melbourne
to confused
doesn't matter. You don't have to rest it.
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Disagree(3 people disagree)
23 Jun 2011 04:30 AEST
Carly
Canberra
confused
In the video it says to let rest for thirty mins where as in the recipe it doesn't say anything? plz Help
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