Barazek

Angela Sara's Note:

Take care!! These Middle Eastern sesame cookies are addictive, especially if you make them really small, about 1-2 inch round, so easy to pop into your mouth!! They are served with sweet Turkish coffee or hot tea.

• Total Time: 30 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 15 mins

Ingredients:

Yield: 24 cookies

• 2 cups sesame seeds
• 1/3 cup honey
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon ghee
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 2 cups semolina
• 1 dash salt
• 3 tablespoons warm milk
• 1/2 cup chopped pistachios (unsalted)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 375°F.
2. In a mixer, cream together the eggs, ghee and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Sift together the baking powder, flour, semolina and salt.
4. Add this to the egg mixture and blend thoroughly.
5. Add enough warm milk to form a soft dough.
6. In a separate bowl, mix together the sesame seeds and honey.
7. Cut dough into small'walnut-sized' pieces.
8. Dip each ball into the chopped pistachios, then flatten to form a 2 inch round cookie.
9. Place each cookie on a greased sheet.
10. Cover each cookie with a drizzle of the sesame seed and honey mixture.
11. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden.

Reviews

[Charishma_Ramchandani]

About 2 years back I was very very crazy for "Barazek" and "Masriyah". Those were the first things to go into my shopping cart. I made these today for my cousin whose travelling back home tomorrow and for the guys who work with dad. EVERYONE loved these. I served these with hot tea this evening. Infact, I have plans now to make these for Sankranti next year(a festival we celebrate every year on 14th Jan when we must necessarily eat food made using sesame seeds and/or jaggery!) I halved this recipe and I did not use pistachios as I didn't have those on hand. I did use 1/4 cup warm milk(low-fat) in addition to the 3tbsps. mentioned here(Note that even though I halved the recipe, I did not halve the 3tbsps. of milk). Also, I did toss in the sesame seeds and honey into the egg-flour mixture in step 5 itself as the dough did seem to be very very dry. With honey being added(again, I did use 1/3 cup honey and didn't halve that) it became easy to knead the dough with my greased(with ghee) hands. These made 23 cookies for me( about an inch and a half or so in size). I baked these at 180C for 15 minutes in my oven that had been preheated at the same temperature. These came out beautiful! Oh, and yes, before baking these, I did drizzle honey on each cookie(a generous amt) and then baked them. They're a beauty and I enjoyed making them. Thanks for sharing, Angela!