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Barazek

This is a trademark Damascene sweet pastry made from flour, butter, sugar, baking powder, eggs, Arabic gum, sesame seeds and pistachios.

Barazek pieces are always made in circular shapes with sesame seeds on one side and crushed pistachio nuts on the other.

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  • 26/April/2014 - Myriams, if the batch you made is too crispy then I think you may have overcooked them. I am sure every pastry maker has its own secret ingredients. I think "mahlab" is used in the recipe you posted for taste and maybe this is the taste which you are missing. I am only an amateur cook and I enjoy cooking desserts in my free time. You can contact me on eyad8@outlook.com if you like.

  • 25/April/2014 - you seem to know a big deal about Pastry. Are you in the field?

  • 25/April/2014 - and what is your e-mail address?I have here in front of me a box of diwan al Mhanna barazek and I am trying to match them in term of taste, crispiness and I am not there yet. the one I just did are very crispy but not yet at all the same taste. I will try over and over again. by the way, on the ingredients of manna, they even mention mahlab. I will try to post a picture of the ingredient box

  • 25/April/2014 - Yes exactly! The number on the flour bag is related to the purity of the flour and the amount of the gluten in it. I am in Damascus now, the home of Barazek :)

  • 25/April/2014 - found the equivalence in France. Flour zero (italian standard) is as you said a very gluten rich flour. In France, it is equivalent to a Flour T45 (in case it means something to someone). Are you in Damascus now?

  • 25/April/2014 - I am sorry Myriams but it was a bad translation from my side, "farkha" is not the same as "zero". "zero" is still white wheat flour but it is more fine and pure than regular flour. I think the "all purpose flour" will be just fine for this recipe.

  • 25/April/2014 - I found what the flour semolina is. it's Farkha flour. but now, the difficulty is to find the equivalent in France :-)

  • 25/April/2014 - You are most welcomed Myriams! The exact ingredients which I used are: 1kg plain flour ("zero" is what is called in Arabic and it mains plain/pure white wheat flour without bran), 1/2kg sugar, 1/2kg ghee (I used vegetable ghee), 1 cup water (or less) and 1 tablespoon yeast. I did not use baking powder and I added the water slowly, you may not need the whole cup. I am looking forward to see the photos of your makings! :D

  • 25/April/2014 - Thank you Eyad for your answer. so glad!!Well to start with, I used the wrong flour. I used wheat flour. So what is flour zero? the one used for pasta? do you know the exact name, which ingredient? thank you loads. and the first time I tried it, I used canned Samneh and it was an awful taste. so I made my own samneh and will try it with it. which amount of baking powder you used? thank you Eyad for your precious advice.

  • 25/April/2014 - Hi Myriams, I have tried the recipe according to the video's ingredients and it turned out just great (see photo) without eggs or the Arabic gum. In case you want to add eggs you can add one or two and reduce the amount of water. Make sure that the flour is "zero" and use ghee instead of butter to get the exact flavor. I advice you to add water only without eggs until the dough is combined. Also, an important tip is to make the dough piece thin when baking to make it crunchy.

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