Authentic Egyptian basbousa recipe that is soft and stays soft. A delicious coconut, yogurt and semolina/farina cake that gets sprikled with nuts and drizzled with syrup to put the final seal of perfection.
Basbousa is a term in the Middle east that refers to a very sweet semolina – sort of- cake. Verbally in Arabic we can call our loved ones “basbousa”, I sometimes call my little kid ” basbousty” which means my basbousa or like saying my sweet.
There are lots of recipes online for basbousa some call for milk some for buttermilk some even add all purpose flour to it, but this recipe is – in my humble opinion- the best and closer to what is served in Egypt.
Basbousa is sold in every corner in Egypt. Each bakery shop has his own lovely basbousa. It has a secret that has been not revealed yet, but we are trying and will continue to try and we will never stop. Determination is the KEY 🔑to success.
This is a recipe that I’ve made probably a couple of hundred times throughout my U.S. life. I’ve made a couple of enhancements and achieved a very satisfying result so far. It is not thick, it is not overly sweetened, the coconut flavor is not overpowering and it is moist and tender and keeps moist and tender for a as long as you want.
I’ve used a couple of tricks I’ve learned so far:
– I’ve used Ghee, which in my opinion made a noticeable difference in taste. Clarifying a cup and a half of unsalted butter will get you a little over one cup of ghee and we will need only 1/2 cup. Clarified butter is not that hard to make.. check out my tutorial here.
– Brush the baking sheet/pan with tahini, the raw tahini paste works wonders keeping the basbousa soft.
– Mix in a tablespoon of honey or corn syrup with the batter. It helps sticking everything together.
– Alway and I mean ALWAYS with any basbousa recipe, cover it after you’ve poured the syrup and while it is hot for 5-10 minutes. Actually if you have time, cover it and let it soak in the syrup overnight.
– And that’s pretty much it. I’ve made my basbousa in a 12 inch rounded baking sheet to end up with pieces that is a little bit over 1cm thickness. If you would love a thicker basbousa, bake it in smaller pan, like 9″, and you can easily double/triple the recipe so do whatever seems perfect for you.
Let’s jump right into some details:
In a deep bowl, add farina, sugar, baking powder and coconut flakes is using. Mixing everything well. Melt ghee and dissolve honey in it. Pour ghee over the dry ingredients and mix well with a spoon until you feel that all farina granules has been well covered with ghee mixture. You’ll end up with a well wet sandy textured mixture.
Now add the yogurt and mix just enough until it disappears in the mixture. Then brush the baking sheet/pan with tahini, raw tahini please not the tahini dip 😄. This is a tip I’ve got from many cooks, I used to brush mine with melted butter but seriously tahini helps keep the basbousa soft. Spread the farina mixture evenly on the pan pressing down with your fingers.
If you are using nuts, spread it over the basbousa pressing lightly on it. Bake in a 350F pre heated oven, in the middle shelf, until the edges start to brown. Now move the pan to the upper shelf of the oven and continue baking until it is nicely brown. Some people like broiling the top, but being me I can easily forget about it until I see smoke coming out of my oven.
When you move the basbousa to the high shelf, start making the syrup. Simply combine all ingredients on medium until it boils. Reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes. Take the basbousa out of the oven then pour the warm syrup over and immediately cover with aluminum foil and return to the TURNED OFF oven. Keep it there for like 10 minutes then take it out and enjoy warm or at room temperature.
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- 1 2/3 cup Farina.
- 1/2 cup ghee.
- 1 Tablespoon honey.
- 1/2 cup sugar.
- 1/2 cup plain yogurt.
- 1/2 Tablespoon baking powder.
- 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes finely shredded.*
- 2 Tablespoon tahini.
- 1 cup sugar.
- 1 cup water.
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice.
- 2 Tablespoon honey.
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract.**
- Nuts for garnishing***
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Heat oven to 350F.
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In a deep bowl, combine farina, baking powder, sugar and coconut then mix well.
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Melt the ghee in the microwave or stovetop then dissolve the honey in it.
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Add the ghee mixture to the bowl of dry ingredients and mix well to combine.
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Add the yogurt and mix, just until everything is well incorporated.
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Brush a round 12 inch baking sheet with the tahini and spread the basbousa mixture evenly.
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Spread nuts on top evenly to decorate.
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Bake in the middle of your oven until edges start to brown, this took about 10 minutes. Then move the basbousa up to the higher shelf and let it continue cooking until golden brown will take anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes.
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When you move the basbousa to the upper shelf start making the syrup.
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In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine syrup ingredients and bring to a boil.
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When it boils, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
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Turn heat off and keep the syrup warm.
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When basbousa is done, turn off your oven and take it out.
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Pour the syrup evenly and cover the basbousa immediately with foil. Return to the TURNED OFF oven for 5-10 minutes.
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Take it out, cut and enjoy
* Using coconut flakes is optional, if you do not like it then do not use and follow the same instructions. Many people though, find it highly recommended to add at least a couple of Tablespoons of coconut flakes.
**Unsing nuts is optional as well.
*** You can flavor the syrup with vanilla, cinnamon stick, rose water, orange blossom water or make it plain. I like making mine with vanilla.
**** As I have stated in the post, this recipe baked in a 12" pan yielded basbousa with a thickness of a little over 1cm. If you want yours to be thicker, bake in a 9" pan or double the recipe.
***** Calories are calculated without the nuts.
May I suggest
One of the most famous and delicious deserts in Egypt, everyone loves it. Some people eat with a lot of syrup and some with less syrup like me:) Kids love it too!
Thank you!
Thanks dear for your sweet comment
Amira: Thanks so much for sharing this wonderful basbousa recipe. I loooove semolina cake but I have never found a great recipe — well now I did. I am as happy as someone can be.
And I am happy that you love semolina too 🙂 I hope you will give this a try and tell me what do you think. I will be posting some great Arabian semolina recipes soon as the Arabian kitchen is full of such nice recipes. Thanks for stopping by.
I love how this cake is named after a term of endearment…it looks so moist and delicious! The syrup is a fantastic addtition!
Oh Liz, How did you know that? 🙂 … I wanted to mention it but I forgot ;-).
Happened to stumble upon your recipe, just made it now..It’s amazing, exactly the way I wanted it to be. thanks a million, am your fan forever 🙂
Anita, Thanks for your sweet words I’m happy that you like the recipe although the real secret is not revealed until now 🙂 It is still a mystery, but we still like it this way too. I’m honored to have a fan like you.
Lovely, this looks fab! cant wait to make this for my eid celebration at the weekend!
I was looking for a dish to make for ‘Egypt day’ at my daughters’ class, something that would be a sweet treat, simple to make, easy for toddlers to be able to eat, but also mindful of common food allergies. This basbousa recipe was perfect! I did 2 variations: added some rose water to the syrup, and left out the nuts (school policy). The kids and teachers loved it, and it got my Mom’s smile of approval when she tasted it.
I just made it again for dessert for iftar with my husband’s family, served warm alongside cold ‘khoshaf’ (a kind of dried-fruit salad of prunes, apricots and nuts in a light syrup), and everyone was delighted.
I have a question about the syrup, where you say to combine while both are hot – when my Mom makes anything like this with syrup (basbousa or konafa) she would usually make the syrup a little ahead of time to let it cool, even putting it in the fridge, and add the cool syrup to the hot basbousa/konafa right when it comes out of the oven. She thinks that makes the syrup distribute differently in the cake. I’ve tried both ways and can’t really tell a difference (both taste yummy to me), and was wondering what you think?
Thanks for the great recipes!
best regards,
Naglaa
You cannot imagine how happy I am that you really liked the recipe. I’ve made it last year in my kid’s school too – without the nuts- and they all loooooved it. About your question, for most cases we cool the syrup first but for basbousa and the like, it is better to add the hot syrup while the basbousa is hot too as it helps improve the texture so it won’t be crunchy and it won’t crumble. I hope this answers your question and thanks again for stopping by.
Hi,
This sounds lovely! and am hoping to make it with my son for his ‘Egyptian food’ homework, however I’m having some trouble converting the cups to grams/ounces! Please could you help? Are they metric or US cups? Many many thanks 🙂
rowena
Thank you for a wonderful source for delicious Middle Eastern cooking. I made your Basbousa for a little dinner party with a Mediterranean/Middle Eastern menu, and it was a big hit. The only thing I did differently was to add a bit of orange blossom water (which I had been dying to try in something) into the syrup for the cake. It was so good! I kept thinking how much my dad would have enjoyed that cake – funny how even 24 years after his passing I still love to cook things that would please him. Thank you for your inspiration!
I like your comment so much ,you really made my day, although I was so sad near the end. May he RIP. For the syrup some people like also to add rose water too, if you like it you may wanna try it someday.
It is THE BEST recipe, I tried more than a handful version, but this one is the lightest most amazing one ever. THANK YOU for this recipe!!!!
Hi Klaudia,
I’m happy that you liked the recipe. Thank you for trying it:)
Hi arabianmama!
I tried your basbousa recipe (first time making it) and for me personally, it was *almost* perfect- next time, I will do without the vanilla essence because although the cake was still nice, I felt it overpowered the flavour. Without it, I think it will become perfect, i.e. exactly how I remember basbousa from my childhood 🙂
Anyway thanks for sharing!
No problem Lana may be because I love vanilla so much that I cannot ever feel it is too much :). As I said the secret behind making basbousa is still a secret and nobody ever revealed it but we are trying our best to imitate what the real basbousa makers are doing. I’ll try to be friend with one next time I visit Egypt to get the secret hahaha. Let us know when you make it next time. Thanks for trying the recipe and for sharing your experience with us. I am really honored.
i love this recipe! I am so glad to have finally found a basbousa recipe I love. I wanted to know what I could do to improve it though. my basbousa (while delicious!) crumbles too quickly. I may test it too quickly after it come out of the oven but do you have any other tips?
I’ve heard – but did not do it until now- that adding from 1-2 Tbsp of white flour to the mixture prevents crumbling. So may be you should start by one and see. Thanks for your sweet comment I’m glad you liked it.
I had Egyptian Basbousa a few times with a lady I knew from there and it was wonderful beyond words but have never found a recipe that tasted like hers… But yours was the perfect one just like hers… and I am sooo happy to be able to make and be sooo happy with the results… I love Middle Eastern recipes and have enjoyed learning how to cook the food!! Thanks soo much with sharing your recipe.
Thank you for giving me the honor and trying my recipe … I’m glad you liked it :). Stick around for more Middle Eastern recipes.
Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatu Sister,
Taqqabal Allahu Mina wa minkum – Eid Mubarak!
Jazak Allahu khayran for this recipe – my kids and I have been learning about How Muslims celebrate Ramadan and Eid around the world. We were looking for a recipe of traditional dish made in one if the countries we were studying and came across your recipe. We have since made it twice for Eid and it is super easy to prepare. We love the taste and have shared it with our family also.
Thank you once again.
Take care
Wassalam alaykum
Umm Halil
This is the best recipe have ever tried for Basbusa, thank you so much.
Hi Amira I recall that h
Harissa in Egypt had no coconut it was made totally of semolina, do you think you would be able to get the recipe. Dad used to bring it home in the morning after he worked late and. it. Was lovely and warm. I searched everywhere but every recipe has coconut. Yet the one he brought home had no coconut. Please help if you can.
Madeleine,
Thanks for stopping by. I’ve never liked homemade basbousa – in the past- due to the fact that it had coconut in it :). I liked the one that we buy from desserts shops better. I’ve tried making this with no coconuts before because one of my guests had coconut allergy. I just increased the semolina little may be 1/4 c, I liked it better than the one with coconut, but to my surprise almost ALL of my guests liked the coconut one more!!! they even asked me for coconut flakes to sprinkle on top of the non-coconut semolina :-/. Since then I did not make the non-coconut version. Currently I’m trying to develop another recipe and I hope I’ll get to the bottom of it, so until then wait for me .. as I really hope to get one that is what is sold in Egypt.
WONDERFUL! Very simple!
“My mom is going to make this delicious recipe now!!!!Thanks!!!
I see your package says farina but the it calls for semolina. I have cream of wheat and farina in the pantry. is it the same thing?
Dale, thanks for stopping by and taking the time to ask. We refer – in the Arab world- to Farina by the term Semolina flour and I’ve seen it here in the US in Sprouts market by the name Farina cereal. So I think you go ahead and use the farina you have for this recipe. Sorry for the confusion.
Oh, so this is basbousa. amira, this does look so delicious and the yogurt adds so much moisture to the cake 🙂 I do like to use buttermilk and yogurt in my cakes because gluten free flours tend to make baked goods very dry. This is a wonderful recipe and I am sure bookmarking this to try this summer 🙂
Balvinder, Thank you, and you are 100% right , yogurt really tends to moisten cakes. I hope you try it and tell me what do you think.
I want to know about texture of basbousa, is it harden top sufece or soft..I have never eaten…this dessert is not common in india….plzzzz rply
Arshi, thanks for asking.. basbousa is really soft and not hard at all. I hope that helps.
I cant wait to make this cake. I love semolina cake and this one looks perfect!
Marc, Thank you for your sweet comment. It is still hard to reach the same texture of the basbousa that is sold in every corner in Egypt, but I will not give up and still trying, wish me luck :). But I promise you are gonna like this one. I have several semolina recipes in the blog, actually semolina is very popular in the Middle East and in the Moroccan cuisine in particular. Stay tuned for more semolina recipes to come.
Hi Amira! This was one of my favorite treats growing up 🙂 unfortunately I can no longer tolerate gluten. Have you ever tried this recipe with another grain?
Naema, unfortunately I haven’t made it with any other grain before. Some people use grits others use creamy buckwheat and they say it depends on the recipe. I do not know how will these grains be like in basbousa. Maybe you can try in small amounts and see if it will work.
Excellent! I lost count of how many online basboosa recipes I tried and this is by far the best one. The only change I made is using vanilla powder instead of the extract. Definitely this is a keeper. Thank you.
Rehab, thanks for trying this recipe and I am so glad you liked it . You are right there are hundreds of recipes out there and I will keep on refining .
Hello Amira
Thanks for all wonderful recipes.
I was making few times some basbousa what recipe was here but …it disappeared:( Instead of it appeared other recipe and other pictures in its place. Could you send to me an old one recipe? We loved it,but bcs I thought it will be here always I didn’t save it and now I feel lost …
Greetings
Sylwia
Sylwia, They are both the same, almost. This one is more enhanced and I got rave reviews about it. Many people said it is the closer to what we get from street vendors in Egypt, I highly recommend that you try it. But anyways, here are the ingredients of the old post, I hope you’ll enjoy it and try the new one as well.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups Farina.
1 cup sugar.
3/4 cup finely shredded coconut flakes.
1 cup plain yogurt.
1/2 cup unsalted butter.
1/2 Tablespoon baking powder.
1/2 Tablespoon baking soda.
A dash of vanilla powder.
For the syrup: the same as above.
I hope this will help and thanks for trying the recipe.