Basbousa - EGYPT

At the moment I'm trying to work crazy hours at work to save for my trip to Ghana, so finding time to cook something each day and blog about is a little bit tricky. Tonight I'm doing a bit of midnight baking, which is actually one of my favourite times to cook... a bit of jazz playing on the laptop, no need to wear pants, it makes me feel a bit free and eccentric.
Unfortunately though, this means that when you've forgotten to buy a vital ingredient, everything is already closed and your a wee bit screwed. I forgot sugar. 

BASBOUSA - EGYPT

Basbousa is a sweet cake made from semolina, soaked in syrup, sometimes with the addition of rose water and/or flaked coconut. Also known as herissa in Alexandria, namoura in Syria or revani in Turkey and Greece, the history behind it's hazy but hey, it's sweet, it's easy to make and deliciously bad for you so lets just thank all the countries for this sweet treat.

Ingredients:

For the cake:

1 cup semolina

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup of sugar (phew glad at least I had this much left in the cupboard)

1 tbs melted margarine

1/2 cup soy milk

1/3 cup chopped and roasted pistachios or almonds

For the syrup:

1 cup water

1 cup sugar (I'm all out at this stage so I used 2 tbs golden syrup)

1 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions:

Heat the oven to 190 degrees and grease a tin. 

Mix the semolina, baking powder, sugar, melted margarine and soy milk together. tip evenly into the tin. Roast your nuts of choice, sprinkle over top the cake mixture, Now I looked at a few different recipes for Basbousa and some say to leave to sit for an hour before cooking and others don't. I got confused and settled for 30 minutes. Cook for 30 minutes until golden.

While it's cooking, heat the water and sugar for the syrup and bring to the boil, add the lemon juice and vanilla, cook for around 5 minutes. Now I think the difference between using sugar and golden syrup, is that the syrup is meant to thicken as you cook it.. and mine did not.

But honestly I don't think it made much difference. Let the syrup cool and pour it over the cake when it's warm just out of the oven.