Light as a feather, crunchy as a newly fallen leaf in the fall, stuffed with delicious semolina pudding and sprinkled with icing sugar. Tamreyah is a traditional Palestinian dessert, to be specific it is a Nabulsi dessert, that is a delight to your eyes and taste buds. An Arabic dessert at its best.
What you'll need
- All purpose flour, to make the dough. We'll need about 2 ¼ cups.
- Salt, water and oil to make the dough and cover it after it is done.
- For the semolina pudding filling we will need semolina, sugar and water.
How to make Tamriyeh
- Mix flour and salt in your mixer bowl and gradually add water until the dough gets separated from the sides of the bowl.
- Keep kneading until you get a nice elastic dough.
- Divide the dough into 6 equal parts.
- Place the dough pieces in a deep bowl, add enough oil to cover and let it rest for at least 4 hours, the more the better.
- Meanwhile make the filling by adding all the ingredients on a medium heat until it thickens. Pour into a 13X9 pan and refrigerate until ready to use.
- When the dough is ready take one ball roll it thin, then cut into 4 equal parts. Take one square and place it in the center of one part of the dough, press lightly to flatten a bit.
- Fold the dough over the filling to form a square as shown above from 2-5.
- Heat oil and fry until all sides are golden brown.
Nabulsi Tamriyeh
I've never heard or had Nabulsi Tamriya before, but it sounded so doable and easy to make for my guests one shiny day. It reminded me of a kind of sweet feteer that is stuffed with pudding and lots of nuts, we used to have in our summer visits to Ras El Barr back in Egypt.
Tamryieh is a very traditional dessert during the holy month of Ramadan, so I am surprised that I did not hear about it or have it before.
The idea is so easy and clever, you make a dough and stretch it so thin like we do when we make feteer, then instead of nesting the dough layers, you just stuff it with a creamy, firm semolina filling, then deep fried, sprinkle it with some sugar and enjoy when it is hot. This dessert has to be hot, this is its prime time.
I've made a big batch, stuffed it and stored it in a single layer on a greased Pyrex on the fridge, we enjoyed this over the course of 5 days. Each day I pull out some and fry then serve immediately. I've served it to my family and my friends, and let me tell you, I've seen expressions that I liked on their faces.
All my three kids loved it specially my oldest who is a pudding lover, it was really hard to keep his hands away from it, and it deserves the calories... really.
I highly recommend this dessert for your next culinary adventure, hope you'll enjoy making and eating like we did.... See you on the next recipe. Enjoy!!
Ingredients
For the dough
- 2 ¼ cup AP. flour.
- Pinch of salt.
- ¾ cup water.
- Oil to cover the dough and we'll use it later for frying.
For the filling
- 1 ½ cup semolina.
- 1 ½ cup sugar.
- 6 cup water.
optional
- ½ tablespoon orange blossom water. OR
- 10 mastic crushed.
For garnishing
- Confectioners sugar and crushed pistachios.
Instructions
- Mix flour and salt in your mixer bowl and gradually add water until the dough gets separated from the sides of the bowl.
- Keep kneading until you get a nice elastic dough.
- Divide the dough into 6 equal parts.
- Place the dough pieces in a deep bowl, add enough oil to cover and let it rest for at least 4 hours, the more the better.
- Meanwhile make the filling by adding all the ingredients on a medium heat until it thickens.
- Pour into a 13X9 pan and refrigerate until ready to use.
- When the dough is ready take one ball roll it thin, then cut into 4 equal parts.
- Take the filling out of the fridge and cut into 24 equal squares.
- Take one square and place it in the center of one part of the dough, press lightly to flatten a bit.
- Fold the dough over the filling to form a square as shown below.
- Heat oil and fry until all sides are golden brown.
- Sprinkle top with powdered sugar and pistachios.Serve immediately.
Helen M.
Growing up in Lebanon, we used to see the stand of the Tamriyeh during the celebration of Saint Elias in West Beirut and St Sassine in the mountain of BeitMerry . I did not know it is somehow easy to make at home; the Tamriyeh pastry chef used to served it plain with powdered sugar or used it to fill a kaak (the purse like street bread) the same way konafeh is filled in kaak. We used to stand in front of his stand to watch him prepare the pastry. Tamriyeh was delicious and was the highlight of the festivities. People would stand on line to buy Tamriyeh by the dozens. Thank you for posting the recipe.
During the holy month of Ramadan, we used to buy the Kollaj from the Arayssi pastry shop in our neighborhood in Beirut . He will start preparing it in the early evening and one has to be waiting there to get some. It was very popular and so delicious and made just during the Ramadan . The shop will run out of his daily batch in no time!
The Kollaj is a sweet pastry that looked something between Tamriyeh and Znoud ElSit.
Amira
Thanks Helen for sharing your sweet memories with us.
Jayaleela
we have a similar sweet in india where it is sserved at festivals
Amira
This is new to me Jayaleela, I am excited to know that. What's it called there?
Coffee and Crumpets
Eid Mubarak, Amira! May you have a blessed Eid and may all your prayers be answered.
I have many Palestinian friends...but I don't remember having this dessert. This sounds wonderful!
In Houston, we used to frequent this Arabic bakery and this lady made everything. Her stuff is wonderful and I miss having something like that here where we can stop by when we crave kunafa, or layli lubnan or basbousa. Now, I have to make all these when I want some!
I think she used to make these and I may have even tried them but didn't know what they were called 🙂
They look great!