Basbousa Madeleines

Basbousa, or Namoura, is a cake-like sweet, soaked in syrup, from the Middle East. Normally, it's in the form of squares, but here, I've been inspired by @ahava_x 's post of August 15, featuring it in Madeleine form. These were very light and yummy.

I used the Basbousa recipe kindly provided, but used ground almonds instead of coconut, and coconut oil instead of butter or margarine. I added a pinch of salt, and then, just "for insurance," a pinch of baking soda. I had an open bottle of rosewater 🌹, so I used that to flavor the syrup. It took about 20 minutes of baking at 350 F to get them "done." (I kept checking on them, at 8 minutes, then 14 minutes, and then every minute or 2 afterwards.)

I added the "insurance" of baking soda, as until recently, every time I made any form of Basbousa, it basically ended up heavy like a brick! Very disappointing. I eventually realized that the recipes I was using for Basbousa, which called for "semolina," actually were referring to semolina *flour* (and not the semolina/farina/sooji/rava, like Cream of Wheat, used in many Indian recipes). However, I still get just a little nervous whenever I make Basbousa, lest it should be another brick.

@ahava_x Instagram, 15 August 2017