When we were youngsters growing up in Beirut we used to go play every day at the one and only “park” in West Beirut. The park boasted one large fountain and many jacaranda and ancient eucalyptus trees. In front of the gates, there was always a cart vendor selling these cakes, called sfoof. I was most attracted by the bright yellow color of the cakes, their geometrical shape and the fact that they were sold in the streets and that we never ate that cake at home. This is the quintessential plain village cake, but fragrant with anise and turmeric. It contains no eggs and can be prepared in less than 15 minutes. A bit on the dry side, it is a perfect snack with a cup of tea or coffee. It elicits nostalgia from anyone who had to leave Beirut and settle elsewhere ( at least it does for me)!
The recipe is adapted from Chef Ramzi’s The Culinary Heritage of Lebanon and scaled down to just 16 servings as opposed to 50!
This cake keeps very well for about one week and can be frozen.
INGREDIENTS: Cake will yield 16 pieces (cake pan 9X13 in)
- 2 cups semolina
- 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter (6 ounces), softened and cut in chunks
- 1 1/4 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon baking powder, a pinch of salt
- 1 tablespoon turmeric
- 1 tablespoon ground anise (optional, but better with it), preferably ground fresh
- 1 teaspoon orange flower water, 1 teaspoon rose water (can substitute vanilla extract)
- 1/4 cup pine nuts or sesame seeds (garnish)
- 3 tablespoons tahineh for coating the pan
turmeric
mix flours & spices
smear tahineh on pan
decorating cake
Baked cake
METHOD:
- Heat the milk and stir in the sugar until it is dissolved. Cool. Add the flower waters if using or the vanilla.
- Mix flour, semolina, baking powder, turmeric and anise and a pinch of salt.
- Rub softened butter in the dry mix until the texture resembles breadcrumbs (can do it in a food processor)
- Pour milk mixture into the semolina and butter mixture and mix well. Batter will be thick.
- Smear tahineh on pan and pour batter in the pan.
- Let it firm up 10 minutes in the freezer, then decorate scoring crisscross lines and placing a pine nut on each lozange.
- Bake at 375F for 30 minutes. It will puff up a bit. Test it with a toothpick. Run the broiler one minute or two to give a nice golden-brown sheen to the top.
- Cool. Cut into lozanges.
NOTE:
Some recipes for sfoof use oil instead of butter. I tried it with oil and prefer using butter.
14 Comments
What a unique blend of flavors for a cake! Delicious!
Cheers,
Rosa
Sounds and looks great! We make sweet bread in Azerbaijan that also has some turmeric in it, so your cake brought back delicious memories. I am saving the recipe, to try one day. thank you!
Thank you for sharing this recipe, Joumana. My grandpa was famous for his “sfoof”. It brings back so many nice memories. I am planning on making it this weekend.
Thanks again!
Hi Dana
I have been eating several servings a day! Did your jeddo use anise or only turmeric? Some older recipes only call for turmeric, maybe anise is a new addition?
Farida: Now I am super curious to taste the Azerbaijani version! do you have it in your blog?
Rosa: Thanks for the comment!
Hi Joumana,
Sahtein
Jeddo’s recipe did not include anise but I believe it would be a most welcome addition. I will for sure try the recipe with it.
I have been looking for fresh olives (I know what you’re thinking, olive and Texas?) with no success. There’s an olive oil producer out of San Antonio who comes to the Mckinney’s farmer market and I asked him if he would sell fresh olives and his answer was its tough to transport and keep fresh all the way from San Antonio.
I would love to cure my own olives as everyone back home does. Have you by any chance stumbled upon any?
Thanks,
Dana
salut joumana
m’en veux pas j’ai posté un hoummous pas tres classique alors dis moi ce que tu en penses !!bizz Pierre
j adore les images!!!!!tu peux m indiquer si y a possibilité de traduire pour une nullasse en anglais… bisous
Salut crazynonna! (tu es italienne?)
Je te traduirai ce que tu veux avec les mesures en grammes. Indique-moi la recette qui t’intéresse! celle-ci?
Hi Dana
When I lived in California in the eighties I used to see olives on the sidewalk from all the olive trees (and akeedenia trees too). I have not seen a single olive tree in the DFW area! The guy from the ranch in the hill country who is selling his olive oil is coming up with a lame excuse, I think! Probably because not many people want to buy fresh olives and cure them. Only foodies like you and me.
Hi Joumana. Thanks for passing from my blog and I look forward to exploring your blog further to see some authentic Lebanese recipes. I am from Cyprus and we have adapted a lot of Lebanese recipes in Cypriot cuisine like hummus, tambouleh, kibbe etc.
Thanks for stopping by my blog. Your site looks delicious, I cannot wait to try some of your recipes and explore further!
I did not have sfouf cake like this for more then 30 years i am Armenian fellow leave in LA I really like spoof I made some change
I used brown flour ( whole wheat flour)
1/2 cup butter.
2 tablespoon turmeric.
no salt.
no anise I did not have any.
2 teaspoon rose water.
1 cup sugar.
5 table spoon coconut.
Mixed it all together.
325f 30 minutes… cheers enjoy John
Hi Joumana,
Ever made any Nammoura or Maamoul Madd? They are kinda cousins to Sfouf and the best place to buy them in Beirut is Taj El Moulouk who used to specialise in Sfouf, Nammoura, and Maamoul Madd and other similar cakes filled with Ashta…
I remember during the war when school was closed, food was one of the things that kept our lives interesting. When it was quiet enough to go out, my father used to take us to Sfouf specialty store (Taj didn’t exist at the time) and we used to get the fresh warm afternoon batch. We would take a little bit of everything, then head to my aunt’s house where my father would spend the afternoon playing backgammon with my aunt’s husband and my mother and her sister would gossip away. Shocker, eh? We played ping pong, sat on the balcony and people-watched, and ate the Sfouf, Nammoura, and Maamoul Madd…
@Ziad: I made nammoura and maamoul; love taj el moulouk, I try to go there when I am around the AUB, since it is close to our place. Love their karabeej!
Thanks for sharing your war memories, I can totally relate.
I made sfouf with sugar (and anise and turmeric) and the old-fashioned way with molasses.
http://www.tasteofbeirut.com/2009/10/country-style-cake-with-anise-and-turmeric-sfoof/
http://www.tasteofbeirut.com/2009/09/sweet-bread-with-molassessfoof/