Moroccan · Dessert
Chebakia
- Advanced
- 80 min
- roughly 4 of 4 for cost
- Vegetarian
Leads with toasted, nutty warmth throughout, a floral thread lifting the aroma, on a rich, rounded finish.
Ingredients
- 500 g plain flour
- 100 g sesame seeds, toasted and ground
- 60 g blanched almonds, ground
- 1 large egg
- 100 g unsalted butter, melted
- 60 ml olive oil
- 4 g instant yeast
- 5 g ground anise seed
- 2 g ground cinnamon
- 0.3 g saffron threads, crushed
- 5 g fine salt
- 60 ml orange blossom water, 45 ml for the dough and 15 ml for the honey
- 120 ml warm water, approximately
- 1.2 litres sunflower oil, for frying
- 700 g honey
- 80 g sesame seeds, toasted, to finish
The skills inside
Kneading doughDry-pan toasting: spices, seeds and nutsBlanching & shocking
Allergen screen
Found: gluten · dairy · egg · nuts · sesame
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Steep the crushed saffron in 45 ml of the orange blossom water for 10 minutes, until the liquid is deep orange. 10 min
- Mix the flour, ground sesame, almonds, yeast, anise, cinnamon and salt, work in the egg, butter, olive oil and saffron liquid, then add warm water until you have a firm dough and knead 10 minutes until it springs back slowly; rest 1 hour. 10 min
- Roll to 2 mm thick, cut rectangles 8 cm by 5 cm, slit each four times down the middle, thread alternate strips through and pinch the ends into a rosette.
- Fry at 165C (330F), turning once, until deep amber and the fierce crackling has died down, about 6 minutes. 6 min
- Lift them straight into honey warmed to 50C (122F) with the remaining orange blossom water, hold them under for 7 minutes until they stop hissing and sink, then drain and shower with the toasted sesame. 7 min
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the techniques it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Kneading dough 57 recipes
- The work changed it: what began shaggy and rough is one smooth, cohesive mass, with nothing raggy hanging off it.
- The surface has gone satin and barely tacky, releasing cleanly from hands and board instead of leaving a trail.
- Worked to the point this dough asks for and no further: springy and elastic where structure is wanted, just brought together where tenderness is.
- Torn or cut open, the inside is uniform: no dry streaks, no unmixed pockets, no core of flour that never met the water.
- After its rest it rolls and shapes without snapping back. A dough that fights the pin needed more rest, not more force.
Where it goes wrong Sticking was fought with flour instead of technique or patience, stroke after stroke, until the dough had taken in far more than the formula asked; it turns tight and dry under the hands, and bakes dense however well everything else goes.
Dry-pan toasting: spices, seeds and nuts 70 recipes
- A single layer on dry metal with nothing added: no fat, and nothing else sharing the pan or the tray and competing for the heat.
- It is kept moving: shaken, stirred, or turned. Anything left still scorches on the face touching the metal while the rest of it is barely warm.
- It is judged by smell before sight: once it is fragrant there are seconds left, not minutes, and the nose reaches that point well before the colour does.
- It leaves the pan the instant it is done, onto a cold surface. A hot pan keeps toasting whatever stays in it, and carryover here is the difference between done and ruined.
- The colour is even and light rather than patchy, with nothing black at the edges: one scorched piece taints the whole quantity it is ground into.
Where it goes wrong It was left alone for a moment while something else was attended to. Dry heat has no margin: the pieces against the metal go from fragrant to acrid inside a minute, and the bitterness cannot be picked back out of a ground mixture.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Sauternes
- Also Right
- Demi-sec Champagne
- From the Taps
- Belgian tripel
- Zero-Proof
- Jasmine tea
The sweetness rule is absolute: the pour must be sweeter than the plate, and acid keeps it from cloying.
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