Basboosa

A delicious Middle Eastern Dessert

This is my 100th post. So I wish to celebrate this with a delicious dessert! Of course, it is not an Indian dessert. It is a traditional Middle Eastern (Arabic) dessert made of semolina flour, yogurt, and coconut. 

I took the original recipe from here. I didn’t make many changes to the original recipe. I just used cashews instead of almonds as suggested in the recipe. I also reduced the amount of time to 30 minutes instead of 40-45 minutes as suggested in the recipe. Everything else remained the same.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients: 2 cups Semolina Flour (Upma Rawa) 1/3 teaspoon Baking Powder 1 cup white Sugar 1 cup sweetened flaked Coconut 1/4 cup Butter, melted 1 cup plain Yogurt 1/4 cup Milk, or as needed 1/4 cup Cashews For the Syrup: 1 cup Water 1 cup white Sugar 1 tbsp Lemon Juice Preparation: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, mix together the semolina flour, baking powder, 1 cup sugar, coconut and butter. Add the yogurt and milk; mix until moistened but not runny or liquid. If you see that it is too dry, add more milk. Spread the prepared batter into a greased 8 inch square baking dish, smoothing the top as much as possible. Decorate the top with cashews. Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden brown. While the basboosa is baking, combine the water, 1 cup of sugar and lemon juice in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, and cook for at least 5 minutes. When the basboosa has finished baking, pour the syrup over it as evenly as possible. Place it back in the oven for about 5 minutes, or until the syrup has been fully absorbed. Let rest for about 20 minutes before cutting into pieces and serving. I must say, this is a very delicious dessert. It is little tangy in taste due to the added yogurt and lemon juice, but the sugar suppresses most of the tanginess and tastes great. I am glad that I found this recipe and shall make it so frequently.

1. As this recipe belongs to Middle Eastern cuisine, it flies off to Siri’s AWED: Middle Eastern Cuisine. A Worldly Epicurean's Delight (A.W.E.D), an event initiated by Dhivya of Culinary bazaar.
2. And as this dessert contains yogurt in the ingredients, it also makes its way into the 'Frozen Yogurt' - A Cool Summer Event, over at Siri’s.
3. And also this dessert contains coconut in its ingredients, so entering the “AFAM – Coconut” event being hosted by Suganya of Tasty Palettes.

So three events with one entry! Have a good day friends!