How to Milk an Almond Stuff an Egg And Armor a Turnip A ...

Add water to semolina ⅛ c at a time,
mixing, until all the semolina is barely
moistened. Add sourdough, ¾ c flour, and
salt, and knead until it is a smooth elastic
dough. Crush saffron into 2 t water; add it and
eggs to dough and knead in. The dough being
too soppy for braiding, add another ¾ c flour.
Leave to rise in a warm place until doubled,
about an hour and a half. While the dough
rises make the sauce: grind the lavender and
add to the honey with pepper and cinnamon;
boil honey and spices about 10 minutes on
medium heat. Flour a cutting board, take
small lumps of dough (about 2 tablespoons),
roll into 6" strings, and braid three together
into braids 6" long. Let rise half an hour.
Brush with oil. Heat about ½" of oil in a
frying pan at medium high heat (275°) and fry
the braids a few at a time, so that there is
room to turn them over as they fry, until
puffed up and light brown on both sides:
about 2-3 minutes total. Drain braids on paper
towels, put on a plate, drizzle with the sauce
and sprinkle with sugar. Makes 15 braids.
Khushkananaj
al-Baghdadi p. 212 (Good)
Take fine white flour, and with every ratl mix
three uqiya of sesame-oil [one part oil to four of
flour], kneading into a firm paste. Leave to rise;
then make into long loaves. Put into the middle of
each loaf a suitable quantity of ground almonds
and scented sugar mixed with rose water, using
half as much almonds as sugar. Press together as
usual, bake in the oven, remove.
2 c white flour 1 c almonds
1 c whole wheat flour 1 ½ c sugar
½ c sesame oil 1 T rose water
¾ to ⅞ c cold water or more flour
½ c water, ½ c sourdough
We originally developed the recipe
without leavening, but currently use
sourdough, which is our best guess at what the
original intended (and also seems to work a
little better). The two versions are:
Without leavening: Mix the flour, stir in
the oil. Sprinkle the water onto the dough, stir
116
in. Knead briefly together.
Sourdough: Mix the flour, stir in the oil.
Mix the water and the sour dough starter
together. Add gradually to the flour/oil
mixture, and knead briefly together. Cover
with a damp cloth and let rise about 8 hours in
a warm place, then knead a little more.
We also have two interpretations of how
the loaves are made; they are:
Almost Baklava: Divide in four parts. Roll
each one out to about 8"x16" on a floured
board. Grind almonds, combine with sugar
and rose water. Spread the mixture over the
rolled out dough and roll up like a jelly roll,
sealing the ends and edges (use a wet finger if
necessary). You may want to roll out the
dough in one place and roll it up in another, so
as not to have bits of nuts on the board you
are trying to roll it out on. You can vary how
thin you roll the dough and how much filling
you use over a considerable range, to your
own taste.
Long thin loaves: Divide the dough into
six or eight parts, roll each out to a long loaf
(about 16"), flatten down the middle so that
you can fill it with the sugar and almond
mixture, then seal it together over the filling.
You end up with a tube of dough with filling
in the middle.
Bake on a lightly oiled pan at 350° about
45-50 minutes.
Notes: At least some of the almonds
should be only coarsely ground, for texture.
Be sure to use middle Eastern (or health food)
sesame oil, from untoasted sesame seeds (see
p. 4). The following recipe gives us some idea
of what scented sugar contained, but for this
one we just add rose water.
A Recipe for Khushkananaj Shaped Like
Crescents
al-Warraq p. 419
Take 4 ratls fresh almonds, taste them for
bitterness, shell them then dry them in a big
copper pot set on the fire. Grind them finely.
Pound 8 ratls refined tabarzad sugar (white cane
sugar), and mix it with the almonds.
Take 2 ratl pith (brick-oven thick bread), dry
it in the tannur, and as soon as you take it out,