Basbousa Cake with Coconut
This Coconut Basbousa is an easy and delicious Middle Eastern dessert. Made with semolina, this dessert has a sweet, nutty flavor to it. Paired with the shredded coconut, this dessert is so flavorful!
pieces
Ingredients
Cake Batter
- 2 ¾ cups coarse semolina
- ½ cup fine semolina also known as ferkha
- 1½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 cups finely shredded coconut unsweetened
- 3 tsps. baking powder
- 1½ tsp. baking soda
- ¾ cup vegetable or canola oil
- 1½ cup yogurt whole fat
- ¼ cup orange blossoms water
Everything else
- ⅓ cup sliced almonds peeled, halves
- 3 tbsps. tahini paste for brushing the pan
- 3 cups Cold Lebanese Simple Syrup Or more per preference
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 F.
- Mix all cake batter the ingredients in a stand mixer bowl on slow speed until well combined.
- Brush a non stick 9 x 13 x 3 inch pan with tahini paste (both bottom and sides). Pour in the batter and spread the dough out with a spatula or your palm to even is out. Cover and let the batter rest for 30 minutes to absorb all the moisture.
- Cut out the Basbousa into whatever shape you want. Squares and Diamonds are best. Place a piece of half an almond on top of each piece.
- Bake in the oven for about 35 minutes or until golden brown in color. You can turn on the top broiler for a couple of minutes before removing it from the oven to add a more deeper brown color to the top if needed. Watch closely if you do that.
- Right when you remove from the cake from the oven, evenly pour out the sugar syrup onto the cake. I like using a squeezable dispenser bottle to do that.
- Let the cake completely cool at room temperature before cutting through to get a perfect cut. It should take about 3-4 hours. Sprinkle some shredded coconut on the Basbousa before serving.
Notes
- The cake should have a generous amount of syrup so it doesn't come out dry. The cake will absorb all the syrup.
- If you don’t have tahini, you can brush the pan with ghee or spray with baking spray and dust with flour.
- If you don’t have almonds, you can place pistachios or pine nuts on top of the Basbousa instead. But I prefer almonds.
- Do not skip the syrup. When the cake is still hot and the syrup is poured on, the cake absorbs it and helps it become extra moist.
- Pre-cutting the Basbousa before baking helps make it much easier to make clean beautiful cuts after it’s been baked.
Nutrition
Calories: 347kcal | Carbohydrates: 49g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 15g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 2mg | Sodium: 161mg | Potassium: 140mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 31g | Vitamin A: 16IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 72mg | Iron: 2mg
Tried this recipe?Rate the recipe below and mention @cookinwithmima and tag #cookinwithmima so I can see your recreations.