Moroccan Almond Semolina Cookies


Middle eastern cuisine has many, many cookies. There's a whole culture present of lingering over tea, coffee and having cookies, pastries or anything sweet while socializing, whether it be in the middle of a bazaar or going over to a neighbor's house for a quick chat. So I'm spoilt for choices when it comes to what should I bake next for dessert from this cuisine.


I'm still very much enamored by semolina and the texture it brings to desserts, so I decided to go with Moroccan cookies that use it. They are called ghriba/ghraybeh/ghariba. The pronunciation epends on the country since there's some variation of this cookie all over the middle east, from Morocco to Syria to Palestine. The cookies are kind of like shortbread-ish in texture with a melt in the mouth feel.
The cookies obviously go very well with tea/coffee but could also be an indulgent dessert if served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Recipe adapted from Dorie's Cookies, by Dorie Greenspan
Makes 32 cookies

Ingredients:
300 gm semolina flour
200 gm almond flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
Grated zest of 1 lemon
150 gm sugar
2 large eggs
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tbsp orange blossom water
3/4 cup icing sugar


Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Whisk semolina flour, almond flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. In a large bowl, rub together the zest with the sugar and add the eggs. Whisk well using your hands until the sugar has dissolved a little and the mixture is a little fluffy, light and pale in color. Add the olive oil in a slow drizzle while whisking till combined. Add the orange blossom water and mix it in. Using a wooden spoon, mix together the dry ingredients not the wet in three increments, only mixing till incorporated.  using your hands, take about 2 tbsp dough and roll it into a ball. Toss this ball into the icing sugar and place it on the lined baking sheet. using your thumb, press down slowly but firmly in the middle to form a depression and to get those beautiful cracks on the outside. Bake for 15 minutes till light golden. Cool on a cooling rack completely before storing in an air tight container.


Comments

  1. I know I couldn't eat just one of those. I love any kind of almond cookie, and these are so pretty, too.

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    Replies
    1. They're not that huge, so you could easily justify eating a couple of them ;)

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