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Stuffed Qanânît, Fried Cannoli
Andalusian p. A-70
115
Pound almond and walnut, pine nuts and
pistachio very small. Knead fine white flour with
oil and make thin breads with it and fry them in
oil. Pound [sugar] fine and mix with the almond,
the walnut and the rest. Add to the paste pepper,
cinnamon, Chinese cinnamon and spikenard.
Knead with the necessary amount of skimmed
honey and put in the dough whole pine nuts, cut
pistachio and almond. Mix it all and then stuff
the qananit that you have made of clean wheat
flour.
Its Preparation: Knead the dough well
with oil and a little saffron and roll it into thin
flatbreads. Stretch them over the tubes (qananit)
of cane, and you cut them [the cane sections] how
you want them, little or big. And throw them
[into a frying pan full of oil], after decorating
them in the reed. Take them out from the reed
and stuff them with the stuffing and put in their
ends whole pistachios and pine nuts, one at each
end, and lay it aside. He who wants his stuffing
with sugar or chopped almond, it will be better, if
God wishes.
Translator’s note: The general discussion
in the beginning, which is the only place
where the stuffing is described, must have
dropped the word sugar, as the recipe section
omitted the instruction to fry the tubes.
“Qanânît” is the plural of “qanut”—canes or
cylinders. (Charles Perry)
½ c almonds ¼ c whole pine nut
½ c walnuts ¼ c pistachios
½ c pine nuts ¼ c almonds
½ c pistachios 3 c flour
1 t pepper ½ c oil
1 T cinnamon ½ c water
1 T true cinnamon (p. 4) oil for frying
1 t spikenard one per cylinder of:
¼ c sugar whole pistachios
¾ c honey whole pine nuts
Grind fine ½ c each of almonds, walnuts,
pine nuts and pistachios. Combine with
spices, sugar, and honey and knead together.
Chop the additional ¼ c each of almonds and
pistachios and add them along with ¼ c of
whole pine nuts. Knead flour, oil and water
together and refrigerate 20 minutes. Form
dough into cylinders ~2" long on ¾" wooden
dowels and deep-fry them in hot oil while on
the dowel. (They had to be fried on the
dowels, since they would not remain as
cylinders otherwise.) Remove each cylinder
from its dowel, stuff it with filling, stop one
end with a whole pistachio and the other with
a whole pine nut.
The Making of Dafâir, Braids
Andalusian, p. A-25
Take what you will of white flour or of
semolina, which is better in these things. Moisten
it with hot water after sifting, and knead well,
after adding some fine flour, leavening, and salt.
Moisten it again and again until it has middling
consistency. Then break into it, for each ratl of
semolina, five eggs and a dirham of saffron, and
beat all this very well, and put the dough in a
dish, cover it and leave it to rise, and the way to
tell when this is done is what was mentioned
before [it holds an indentation]. When it has
risen, clean a frying pan and fill it with fresh oil,
then put it on the fire. When it starts to boil,
make braids of the leavened dough like hairbraids,
of a handspan or less in size. Coat them
with oil and throw them in the oil and fry them
until they brown. When their cooking is done,
arrange them on an earthenware plate and pour
over them skimmed honey spiced with pepper,
cinnamon, Chinese cinnamon, and lavender.
Sprinkle it with ground sugar and present it, God
willing. This same way you make isfunj, except
that the dough for the isfunj will be rather light.
Leave out the saffron, make it into balls and fry
them in that shape, God willing. And if you wish
stuffed dafâir or isfunj, stuff them with a filling
of almonds and sugar, as indicated for making
qâhiriyât.
Note: the recipe calls for a dirham of
saffron = 3.8 grams, which is a lot of saffron.
If this is a scribal error for a danaq it would be
.6 grams, which is how we do it. Feel free to
substitute 3.8 grams if you really like saffron.
1 c water 1 T lavender
1 lb semolina = 2 ⅜ c 1 c honey
1 c sourdough ½ t pepper
¾ c flour 1 t cinnamon
1 t salt ~1 T oil to brush on
.6 gram saffron oil for frying
3 eggs 1 ½ t sugar
¾ c more flour