Tag Archives: orange blossom water

Coffee: White or black

  For those of you who dread the jolt that caffeine-laden Turkish coffee inflicts, there is  white coffee. White coffee is offered at get-togethers in Lebanon and it is simply boiled water with a few drops of orange blossom water (to taste) and sugar (optional). In Lebanon there are a few major Turkish coffee providers [...]
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Spiced brioche rolls

There is a very traditional sweet bread/cake in Lebanon that used to be sold in the streets of Beirut by cart vendors; this cake is called sfoof and has a very distinct bright yellow color due to turmeric in the batter. Apparently, turmeric is a very beneficial spice and I had been looking for ways [...]
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Mini-kadaifi cakes

If you walk into a pastry shop in Beirut (specializing in Arabic sweets), a good third of all pastries will be made with this dough, called kataifi or shredded phyllo dough. I saw  once  how this dough is made: A batter is piped through hundreds of minuscule little holes onto a hot griddle which forms [...]
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Sweet vermicelli pasta (Sh’ariyeh be-sukkar)

In the Lebanese kitchen, capellini or vermicelli pasta is used on a daily basis to make our rice and pasta pilaf. This is a sweet version I read about in Ina’am Atalla’s Simply Lebanese. Mrs Atalla recalls how this dessert used to be her mother’s standby when people would drop by for a visit (a [...]
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Makaroons

The French have their macarons, the Italians their macaroni, the Lebanese  their makaroons. Closer to the Italian version, Lebanese makaroons are made with flour (semolina or plain flour) and water into a dough and can be savory or sweet. You will get a sweet version today; these are also called “Zeinab’s fingers” assabeh  Zeinab. Flavored [...]
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