Basbousa/Harissa - Semolina And Coconut Eggless Cake

Basbousa or Harissa is an Arabic word for a sweet cake which is made up with the mix of both roasted semolina and coconut, later soaked in rose flavor sugar syrup or orange flavor sugar syrup..It has a very little hint of flour or can also be said as no flour cake. Few months back i saw a popular chef cooked this cake....Yes cook is a right word,, as he made this without oven or microwave. He simply made on gas stove and allowed it to cool and sliced than after, so here my version is baking..Yesssss. and its a Baked Basbousa/Harissa (A semolina and a coconut cake).

Ingredients:
1 1/3 cup Semolina (Sooji) or Rawa dry roasted until light brown
1 1/2 cup dried coconut
2 tbsp corn starch
5 tbsp Maida
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup ( & 3 tbsp more) milk at room temperature
3 tbsp golden Raisins
10-15 cashew nuts (cut into small pieces)
1/2 cup melted butter
1 tsp Vanilla essence
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt

Garnish Toppings:
6-7 golden raisins
6 almond sliced in between (total of 12 slices) or (can use almond flakes)
4 cashew nuts (cut in to small pieces)

For Syrup:
1/2 cup water
1 cup sugar
3 tsp rose water


Recipe:

• Pre Heat Oven at 180 degree Celsius.
• Dry Roast Semolina (Sooji or Rawa) in a non stick pan until light brown in color, let it cool and keep it aside.
• In a large bowl mix all dry ingredients- Cooled and roasted semolina, dried coconut, corn starch, maida, golden raisins, cashew nuts cut in to small pieces, baking powder and salt.
• In a small bowl mix all wet ingredients-melted butter, water, milk and vanilla essence.
• Fold all mixture of wet ingredients into all dry mixture and mix all well.
• Pour the mixture into greased cake tin. 
• Spread all over evenly.

• Garnish the cake top with golden raisins, almond slices or flakes and cashew nuts cut in to pieces.
• Bake the same in preheated oven for 35-40 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in it comes out clean.
• In a mean time make syrup to pour over on cake as soon as it comes out fresh and still hot from oven.
• In a small fry pan pour water, add sugar and rose water. Cook the mixture on a medium low flame until sugar dissolves. 
• Once sugar dissolves in it completely turn the flame to low and cook furthur for 2 minutes.
• Here the syrup does not need to be too much thick. It should only be very little thick but still runny.
• And yes its done and turn of the flame.
• Now as the cake is done and still warm, pour the syrup on top of the cake. Let it cool completely and all syrup get absorbed in cake.
• Cut into slices and serve with a hot cup of Tea or coffee. It goes really well with coffee (as served traditionally), as am not much fond of coffee, so i prefer having it with a cup of tea.

I really look forward for your lovely response...
Thank you :)

Eggless Mawa Wheat Cake

Mawa cake, a perfect tea time cake. I never had this before, but heard a lot about Mumbai's and pune's Irani cafe serving mawa cake. Mawa sweets are my favorite and so the mawa cake by now on.. I was just looking for traditional irani mawa cake's recipe but all traditional recipes that i saw was having eggs in it. And i wanted to make eggless version of it, so here i have made eggless wheat mawa cake, not whole wheat but a mixture of maida and  regular wheat flour.
In India you easily get mawa/khoya but in outside some countries you don't easily get, so what you can do here is you can substitute with milk cake, the one which we generally have during fasting. Or one more option is to make mawa at home. So here i' ll be posting  both mawa recipe along with its cake too.

Ingredients:
For Mawa/Khoya:
4 cups Full Fat milk
1 cup full fat cream

For Mawa Cake
Dry Ingerdients:
1 cup Maida
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cup brown sugar (or white powdered sugar)

Wet Ingredients:
1/2 cup Clarified butter (Ghee) / Melted butter (I prefer using Clarified butter (Ghee) to give it little more of traditional taste to it)
1/2 Milk (Full fat or low fat up to you)
3/4 cup Grated Mawa/Khoya
2 tsp Full Rose water
4-5 saffron threads soaked in 1 tsp milk for 15-20 minutes

Dried fruits:
1 1/2 tsp green cardamom powder (remove its seed and powder it)
3 tbsp chopped Pistachios (2 tbsp in cake and 1 tbsp for Garnishing)
3 tbsp chopped Roasted Almond (2 tbsp in cake and 1 tbsp for Garnishing)
3 tbsp chopped cashew nuts (2 tbsp in cake and 1 tbsp for Garnishing)

Recipe:

For Mawa:
In a heavy bottom non stick pan Mix full fat milk with cream. On a high flame bring it to boil thrice. Stir and cook the mixture on medium flame for about 15 minutes. Now turn the flame from medium to low, keep stirring. Now cook for about 30-35 minutes or more and keep stirring in between. Slowly you'll start seeing a little grainy like texture in the mixture. Keep cooking and stirring further for 35-40 minutes more on low flame, until it becomes semi solid, dense and much like halwa. Turn the flame off and let it cool completely to room temperature (will become little more solid once it cools down and that is what you want). The total cooking time will be around 1 hr 20 minutes.

Yields: 1 cup full and 200 gms of Mawa/khoya (Once cool completely, it can be refrigerate for 4 days. Or you can freeze it in freezer for 1 month, whenever you want to use, let it come to room temperature, grate and than use to avoid lumps)

Home Made Mawa / Khoya

 For Mawa/ Khoya Cake:

• Preheat Oven at 180 degree Celsius.
• In a large bowl, Grate Mawa and mix with all the wet ingredients. Use hand blender to mix all of them nicely in to thick paste like consistency.
• Now in another small bowl mix all dry ingredients with wet ingredients. Mixture of the cake batter should be lump free (use hand blender if required).
• Now fold in green cardamom powder with 2 tbsp chopped each (Pistachios, Almonds and Cashew nuts) in the mixture.
• Pour the batter in the greased cake pan and spread all over evenly. For Garnishing Sprinkle on top 1 tbsp chopped each (Pistachios, almonds and Cashew nuts).

• Now Bake the cake in preheated oven for 1 hour or until toothpick inserted in, comes out clean.

• Serve Hot with a cup of Tea or Coffee and Enjoy :)