For the men – if you’ve been brave enough to make it past the title, I’ve written about baking. This may not be your favorite subject, but if you read on you may (nevertheless, insha’Allah) pick up some vocabulary, and perhaps a recipe or two that you’d like to share with a female family member. And perhaps a very brave man or two might even try one of these out on your own!
Or, maybe not….
Anyway, if you are in Algeria, and there are only a few days before Eid (insha’Allah) chances are that you’ll find the average Algerian woman plowing through batch after batch of Eid sweets. Even the expat women who live here find themselves sucked into the same routine. Family pressure plus anticipated Eid visitors means that cookies have to be made – a lot of them – and my situation is no different.
Although most Algerian women make a wide variety of sweets, I usually limit the amount I make to about 3 disparate recipes, and in light of the fact that my brain is fried from having to produce so many cookies, I thought I would share the recipes I am using – if for no other reason then you might enjoy seeing what this American Muslim makes for Eid.
French Gatteau
(As an interesting linguistic side-note and semi-rant, I make Eid cookies. My British friend, who also lives in Algeria, makes Eid “cakes“. This doesn’t make any sense to me, because she is not actually making cake. She is making Algerian halawa, but she calls these creations “cake”. In my mind – a scary place to be, granted – cake has a soft, spongy texture and almost always is made with baking powder and/or baking soda and eggs. It is similar to the French Fruit Gatteau you see here, on the right.
This picture is clearly NOT a cookie! Or even a piece of halawa! I, on the other hand, make cookies.
The picture below is a picture of cookies – and they are not anything like a cake!)
Anyway, I do give in to pressure and always make one kind of Algerian cookie – the unpronounceable (for me) and very easy Ghribia:
Fatima’s Ghribia
*Note: 250 grams = 1 American cup
1 cup butter
1 cup oil
1 pinch salt
2 packages (or teaspoons) vanilla
1 package baking powder
3 3/4 cups flour (850 grams)
1 cup powdered sugar
- Mix powdered sugar, vanilla, butter and salt in one bowl.
- Mix flour, baking soda, and salt in another bowl.
- Add oil in 3 parts to the sugar/butter mixture and stir until completely mixed.
- Add flour mixture little by little, mixing until all the flour is incorporated. The mixture will be crumbly, a little, but you should be able to shape them into little balls.
- Decorate with a tiny sprinkling of cinnamon right on the top of the ball of dough.
- Place on a greased and floured baking sheet.
- Bake at 180 degree (C) oven until the Ghribia begins to crack slightly.
- Do NOT attempt to remove the cookies from the cookie sheet until they have cooled. Ghribia are very fragile before they have cooled and they will crumble!
The next cookie in the Eid-Sweet line-up are Martha Stewart’s Ideal Sugar Cookies, to the left. No, I did not make these. Martha did. Mine are not so perfect! These are a perennial family favorite to the point that we must make them every Eid — or else it’s just not Eid. They aren’t to everyone’s taste because they are very sweet – but Martha Stewart’s version of this classic American cookie really can’t be beat. We always frost them with her Royal Icing, too and they make any Eid plate look festive.
A cake being frosted.
Finally this year, because it’s so simple and delicious, we are making Coconut-Cake Bread which is not bread at all (in the usual savory sense) but rather a cake baked in a traditional bread loaf-shaped pan. This kind of “bread” is called a quick bread, in American English, because it is made with baking powder rather then the yeast that is used for sliced bread or for a baguette.
From the Wooden Spoon Cookbook, by Marilyn M. Moore:
Coconut-Cake Bread
This tender cakelike bread draws raves ever time it is served.
Preheat oven to 180 C. Grease and flour a 23 cm x 13 cm baking pan. Sift together and set aside
2 cups unbleached flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
In a mixing bowl, beat together
1/2 cup soft butter (* I use regular “cooking” oil)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (If you are using powdered vanilla, then mix it in and add with the flour rather than with the butter.)
Beat into butter mixture
1 cup sugar
Add, one at a time, beating well after each addition
2 eggs
Add alternatively with the dry ingredients, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients
3/4 cup milk
Blend after each addition. Fold into batter
1 cup firmly packed flake coconut
Turn into prepared pan. Bake at 180 C for 1 hour or until a wooden pick (or knife) inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then turn out on a wire rack to cool completely. Wrap in aluminum foil to store. This bread slices more easily the second day. Makes 1 loaf.
So, what are some of your Eid favorites?