Harissa, Harisa, Haresa Arabic Semolina Cake
"I was looking for a varition of our families Harissa recipe but was suprised that Zarr did'nt have anything close to what we love to make every Ramadan and special occasion. Us Palestinians love sweets. So here it is and enjoy!"
photo by Jonathan Melendez
- Ready In:
- 1hr
- Ingredients:
- 9
- Serves:
-
12
ingredients
-
cake
- 709.77 ml semolina
- 177.44 ml unsweetened butter, melted
- 177.44 ml sugar
- 7.39 ml baking soda
- 236.59 ml plain yogurt
- 118.29 ml whole blanched almonds (to garnish) or 118.29 ml ground pistachio nut (to garnish)
-
syrup
- 946.36 ml sugar
- 709.77 ml water
- 1 small lemon, juice of (or equivalent citric acid)
directions
- Mix the semolina, the sugar and the butter in a large bowl. Use your hands to corporate the butter with the other ingredients until mixed well.
- Mix the yogurt and the baking soda in a separate bowl.
- Wait a few minutes until the yogurt doubles in size.
- When the yogurt has doubled (or almost)pour the yogurt mix on top of the semolina mix.
- Use your hands again to mix.
- After you combined the two mixes, press the mix down on a small jellyroll pan or a 9x13 pyrex baking dish.
- (The cake mix should not be more then 1 inch thick. If it is bake the cake in a bigger pan or take out the extra and bake it in a separte pan.).
- Cut a diamond or square design in the cake witha butter knife.
- If using almond place one in each piece.
- Bake at 400 degrees for 30min to 45 mins until its a bronze brown color.
- Pour cold syrup on top while its hot so it can absorb all through.
- If using ground pistashios sprinkle a little on top of each square.
-
FOR THE SYRUP:
- Mix all the ingredients for the syrup and place in saucepan on high until it boils. If using citric acid use only the the tip of a teaspoon.
- Then reduce the heat to medium for 45 min to 1 hour until it coats a metal spoon.
Questions & Replies
-
can I freeze hareesa? -
How many pieces of cake does one recipe make?
-
Is it course semolina or the regular one -
I want to make this recipe for a school project. Where do you buy these ingredients from?
Reviews
-
I grease the pan with tahina and i add the mazaher or orange blossom water to the atter(syrup) after it is cooled off. Also, the syrup should be made thiner and room temperature and added 10 minutes after the harisa being taken out from the oven. This is also called namoura or basboosa! I Oh, i rememberd too, that i wipe the surface with yogurt and then cut it with sharp knife into very small diamonds. I blanch the almonds, peel them and toast them a little before i cover each diamond with the almonds and bake it.I also used clarified butter instead of regular unsweetend butter. It was delicious! -
Good recipe..I added a bit of coconut and vanilla. I didnt boil my attar for that long, probably under 20 minutes. This cake needs alot of attar or it will be dry, and make sure you add it when it's hot. Thanks for the recipe. -
Irresistably delicious and doesn't get any easier than this to make! I followed the recipe exactly except for the syrup because I wanted to cut time short.So I just made the " Attar Palestinian syrup" from this site and it still turned out great.Thank you for posting this great recipe! -
We invited people over to break Ramadan fast with us and I made this. Everyone loved it. My husband said I'd outdone myself! I didn't quite have 3 whole cups of semolina, about 2 3/4 so I sort of cut down on everything else as well, like using only 1 tsp of baking soda and cutting down on the sugar and water for the syrup. I used whole pistachios for each square. It certainly was a big hit and I'm already thinking about when I can make it again. thanks for sharing!
-
I must have tried five or six different recipes for this cake, and this is by FAR the BEST!! If you are looking for great harissa dont look any further, this is it! Thanks Faten for an awesome recipe! We cant get enough!
see 15 more reviews
Tweaks
-
I couldn't find blanched almonds anywhere so I used whole roasted almonds instead. -
1/2 cup of shredded unsweetened coconut
