Baklawa & Halawa

A collection of sweet pastries and desserts from Lebanon and the region, described within.

BuyPoster: Arabic or English
T-shirts and other
Category

Description of the pastries (as far as I could make them out because I haven’t tasted them all):

Asabeh: “Fingers”, crispy paste rolled over a stuffing.
Atayef: Sweet crepe filled with cheese or nuts, served with ‘atr (sugar syrup with orange blossom water), usually during Ramadan.
Baklawa: The generic, layered pastry, with chopped nuts , soaked with qatr (syrup).
Barazek:Flat pistachio and sesame cookies.
Barma: “Roll”, shredded wheat rolled around a stuffing.
Basma: “Smile”, square semolina pastries stuffed with nuts.
Bellawrieh:Square pastry made of a fibrous wheat paste, stuffed with pistachios and soaked in ‘atr.
Faysalieh: A triangle of pastry stuffed with pistachios.
Ghazel banet: “Flirtation of girls”, cotton candy.
Ghoraybeh: Lebanese shortbread cookie made simply with flour and sugar.
Halawet el jibn: Lebanese dessert made of cheese dough, ashta (a thick clotted cream)and rose jam.
Halawet el rizz: Rice mixed with white cheese and sugar, served with ashta.
Hrisseh: A soft, dense Lebanese cake associated with Christian holidays.
Jazarieh: Despite its “carroty” name, it’s made of grated candied pumpkin mixed with nuts.
Kallaj: Fried wheat layer filled with ashta, specially served during Ramadan.
Karabij: Shortbread fingers served with a special white cream made of egg whites, qatr and soapwort.
Kol wa Shkor: “Eat and give thanks”, crunchy half-moon-shaped paste filled with pistachios or nuts.
Maakaron:
Maamoul: Shortbread pastries stuffed with pistachios, nuts or dates, molded in characteristic wooden molds. They’re associated with religious holidays – Easter or Ramadan. Easter maamouls are made in two shapes: round (stuffed with dates) to symbolize the crown of thorns, and oval (stuffed with nuts or pistachios) to symbolize the sponge Christ was given to quench his thirst.
Maamoul madd: Maamoul prepared in a “spread” and cut up rather than individually molded.
Mafroukeh: A festive dessert recipe, made of layers of semolina, ashta cream and roasted nuts.
Mloukieh: ?
Nabolsieh: Cheese dessert topped with crushed pistachios and ‘atr.
Nammoura: Square pieces of golden semolina cake topped with almonds.
Osh el bolbol: “The bulbul’s nest”.
Osmalieh: Fibrous wheat paste sandwiching ashta cream.
Salwa: ?
Sanyoura: A sugar cookie.
Sfouf: A Lebanese cake from almond-semolina flour flavored with turmeric (hence the bright yellow), sugar, and pine nuts.
Sheaibiyat: Triangles of crispy pastry layers filled with ashta.
Taj el malek: “The king’s crown”, shredded wheat crowns filled with pistachios.
Taj ashta: A “crown” with ashta, a thick clotted cream.
Tamara: Presumably stuffed with dates.
Ward el Sham: “The Rose of Damascus”, ashta between two layers of crispy phyllo dough.
Znoud el sitt: “The lady’s arms”

Recurring ingredients:
Fostoq: pistachio
Snobar: pine nut
Tamar: date
Joz: Walnut

2 Replies

A penny for your thoughts!