Lady Jayne’s Middle Eastern Desserts
Lady Jayne of Valles seems to have thrown down the gauntlet for recipes for desserts from the Middle East. Now she is challenging me to produce a few recipes for desserts that she enjoyed during her time in Middle East. Well Lady Jane – game on. Our database holds in excess of 10 million recipes. Desserts here we go. We will start with your favourite Um Ali, one of the most popular desserts of the region. The other most popular of the desserts is baklava (baklawa) which can be found all around the Middle East, especially in Turkey and Greece.
Um Ali ~ Bread Pudding
This has become one of the best known desserts in the UAE and quite literally means ‘the queen of puddings’. A particular favourite during Ramadan, it has its roots in Egypt, yet the local cook has adapted it to ingredients more common to this area. Although demanding more ingredients than most local desserts, it is, however, simple to prepare.
For the puff pastry: make as below or substitute with an 8oz (225 gms) pack of frozen puff pastry.
4 cups milk
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup pine nuts
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup single cream
Pastry:
1 cup self raising flour
1/2 cup teaspoon salt
3/4 cup lard (excluding hog lards)
3/4 cup cold water
Mix flour and salt in a basin. Cut lard into small pieces and mix with flour, using a knife (don’t rub lard in); mix into a stiff paste with cold water. Turn on to a floured bread and roll out to a narrow strip. Fold into three, turn one of the open ends towards you and roll again. Do this three times. Roll for the final time into a rectangle. Always take care to roll away from you and do not break the air bubbles which give the dough its rising capabilities.
Make pastry as above, bake in a hot over until it is golden and has risen, then cool. Separate layers into three equal parts. Sprinkle the layers with nuts and raisins, then place in a greased casserole dish.
Boil milk, sugar and cream and when it begins to bubble, add cinnamon and vanilla. Remove from heat, then pour the hot mixture over the puff pastry and bake for an hour in a medium to hot oven. The top should be golden brown. Serve warm with fresh cream.
From the book “The Complete United Arab Emirates Cookbook”
by Celia Ann Brock- Al Ansari
Copyright © 1994 by Celia Ann Brock-Al Ansari
Ma’amouI – Almond Fingers
Makes about 40
500g (1lb 202) plain flour
250g (9oz) unsalted butter
2-3 tablespoons orange-blossom water or rose water
4-5 tablespoons milk
icing sugar, to sprinkle on
For the date filling
500g(1|b) pitted dates
about 100ml (4fl oz) water
These glorious little stuffed pastries have a melt-in-the-mouth shell and a variety of fillings of dates or nuts — walnuts, pistachios or almonds.
Prepare the filling. Cut the dates up into pieces. Put them into a saucepan with the water and cook over a low heat, stirring, until they turn to a soft paste. Let it cool. Put the flour into a bowl and work in the butter with your fingers. Add the orange-blossom or rose water and the milk — just enough for the dough to hold together — and work until it is soft, malleable and easy to shape.
Take a walnut-sized lump of dough. Roll it into a ball and hollow it out with your thumb. Pinch the sides up to make a pot shape. Fill the hole with the filling to three-quarters full and bring the dough up over the opening to close into a ball. Flatten the filled balls slightly. Place the pastries on a large baking tray. Make little dents with the back of a fork. Bake in a preheated 160°C (325°F, gas 3) oven for 20-25 minutes. Do not let the pastries become brown or they will be hard and their taste will be spoilt. While they are still warm, they appear soft and uncooked, but on cooling they become firm. When cold, dust with icing sugar. They will keep for a long time in a tightly closed tin.
Variations: These nut fillings are considered the grandest and they really are. Use them instead of the date filling.
375g (13oz) of finely chopped walnuts mixed with 4 tablespoons of sugar, 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon and the grated rind of 1/2 an orange.
375g (13oz) of ground pistachio nuts mixed with 4 tablespoons of sugar and 1 tablespoon of rose water.
375g (13oz) of ground almonds mixed with 4 tablespoons of sugar and 2 tablespoons of rose or orange-blossom water.
Almond ‘Snake’ M’HENCHA
For the filling
1.5kg (3 3/4lb) ground almonds
1kg (2lb 202) caster sugar
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
200ml (7 fl oz) orange-flower water
a few drops of almond essence (optional)
For the pastry
500g (1lb)filo pastry
4 1/2oz (125g) butter, melted
2 egg yolks for glazing
To garnish
icing sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
These Moroccan pastry desserts are a long coil — hence the name m’hencha, meaning snake — of filo pastry filled with a ground almond paste. I watched Jamie Oliver making one of these desserts on his visst to turkey. It is stunning to look at and exquisite. Make it for a grand occasion.Mix all the filling ingredients and work into a paste with your hands. Open out the sheets of filo when you are ready to use them and keep them in a pile so that they do not dry out. Brush the top one lightly with melted butter. Take lumps of the almond paste and roll into fingers. Place them end to end in a line about 2cm (3/4in) thick along one long edge and roll the sheet of filo up over the filling into a thin long roll, tucking the ends in to stop the filling oozing out.
Lift the roll up carefully with both hands and place it in the middle of a piece of greaseproof paper or greased sheet of foil on the largest possible oven sheet or tray. Curve the roll very gently like a snail — to do so without tearing the filo, you have to crease the pastry first like an accordion by pushing the ends of the rolls gently towards the centre with both hands.
Do the same with the other sheets until all the filling is used up, rolling them up with the filling inside, curving the rolls and placing them end to end to make a long tight coil. Brush the top of the pastry with the egg yolks mixed with 2 teaspoons of water and bake in a 180°C (350°F, gas 4) oven for 35-40 minutes until crisp and lightly browned. Serve cold, sprinkled with icing sugar and with lines of cinnamon in the shape of the spokes of a wheel.
Baklawa
Makes about 50 pieces
500g (1 lb)filo pastry
180g (602) unsalted butter, melted
500g (1lb) pistachio nuts or walnuts, ground medium fine
For the syrup
500g (1lb) sugar
300ml (1/2 pint) water
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons orange-blossom or rose water
This is the all-time Middle Eastern desserts favorite, but a home-made one is something other than the ubiquitous examples found in the trade.
Prepare the syrup first. Dissolve the sugar in the water with the lemon juice and simmer for a few minutes until it thickens enough to coat a spoon. Add orange-blossom or rose water and simmer for half a minute. Allow to cool, then chill in the refrigerator.
In a greased baking pan, a little smaller than the sheets of filo, lay half the sheets, one at a time, brushing each with melted butter and letting the edges come up the sides of the tray or overhang.
Spread the nuts of your choice evenly over the sheets. Cover with the remaining sheets, brushing each, including the top one, with melted butter. Cut parallel lines 4-5cm (1 1/2in) apart diagonally into diamond shapes, using a sharp knife and cutting right through to the bottom.
Bake the baklawa in a preheated 180°C (350°F, gas 4) oven for 30-35 minutes or until it is puffed and lightly coloured. Remove from the oven and quickly pour the cold syrup over the hot baklawa along the slashed lines. The amount of syrup is the usual one. If you prefer to use less, pour on three-quarters or half the amount and let people help themselves to more if they wish.
When the baklawa is cold and ready to serve, cut along the lines again and lift the pieces of pastry out one by one on to a serving dish, or turn the whole pastry out first (by turning it upside down on to a large plate and then turning it over again on to the serving dish) and then cut again along the lines.
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