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

Basbüssa aka Basbousa/Namoura 

(Semolina Cake Soaked in Sugar Syrup)

Here is a daytime photo of Basbüssa (Semolina Cake), aka Basbousa/Namoura, made from the recipe of Anissa Helou in Mediterranean Street Food. (The previous post photo was taken with my phone, at night.) I wanted to take a nice picture, because this recipe is so awesome! The cake by itself is yummy, and with the syrup, it's sweet yet light.

Basbüssa aka Basbousa/Namoura 

(Semolina Cake Soaked in Sugar Syrup)

This recipe is from Mediterranean Street Food by Anissa Helou. As I mentioned a few days ago, it's only recently (in the last few months) that I've been successful with any recipe of this sweet. Before that, it somehow always ended up like a brick. However, now I feel I can try different recipes with some confidence.

I made a basbousa last week, with a coconut-sugar syrup that I improvised, and it was too heavy and rich for me. (I have to be careful what I eat, but it's possible nobody else would've had a problem.) So, I decided to make this recipe, but to be careful following all the directions, and to use a sugar syrup with plain sugar (and to use less syrup than suggested). That result was much lighter and the cake itself tasted good. Once soaked in sugar syrup, the cake was sweet enough but not weighed down (like the one with the coconut-sugar syrup). I'm very glad, as this is my favorite Arabic sweet.

Anissa Helou Facebook

Basbousa/Namoura

Throwback to: Basbousa/Namoura, a Middle Eastern cake-like sweet, soaked in syrup. This was based on the Coconut Basbousa (Semolina Cake) YouTube video of Mariam the Cook, and was my first successful basbousa/namoura. Before that, I'd made several versions from other recipes, and many of them could be compared to bricks.

Some of it was my error, not realizing that "semolina" in some cases meant semolina flour, vs the semolina/farina/sooji/rava used in India. Well, the happy ending is that with this version, I achieved my goal: a great basbousa/namoura, similar enough to the very first namoura I once had at an Arabic bakery.

Mariam the Cook YouTube, Coconut Basbousa