In a bowl, a complete dinner! fits perfectly with a tasty slice of Italian or French bread. This is my absolute favorite to bring to work or school for lunch with my son and teenage daughters! Depending on the number of servings I require, I adjust the amounts of meat, spaghetti, and salad. Do not include the dressing and croutons if you intend to make it ahead of time or have leftovers. Just before packaging, combine the croutons, and include the dressing on the side. When I have steak leftovers, I make this!
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 30 mins |
| Total Time: | 50 mins |
| Servings: | 12 |
| Yield: | 12 dessert squares |
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups semolina flour
- ½ cup white sugar
- 1 cup plain yogurt
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 3 tablespoons flaked coconut
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 6 whole almonds, split in half
- 1 ½ cups water
- 1 ¾ cups white sugar
- 2 tablespoons rose water
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, mix together the semolina flour, 1/2 cup of sugar, yogurt, oil, coconut, and baking powder. Set aside for 30 minutes.
- In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, stir together the water, 1 3/4 cups sugar, and rosewater. Bring to a boil, and boil for 3 or 4 minutes. Remove from heat, and set aside to cool to room temperature.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spread the semolina batter into the bottom of a 9×13 inch baking pan. Slice into squares or diamonds, and place on almond half onto each piece.
- Bake for 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until light brown. Switch the oven setting to broil, and broil until the top is golden, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from the oven, and pour the syrup over the squares. Serve warm.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 323 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 55 g |
| Cholesterol | 1 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 4 g |
| Saturated Fat | 2 g |
| Sodium | 102 mg |
| Sugars | 40 g |
| Fat | 10 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I’d follow what the directions and recipe says, i just hope that it’ll be the same
This was a nice and sweet end to the decade, I could’ve put more rosewater in, and definitely didn’t need all of the syrup.
I used a lemon glaze instead of the rose water syrup. It was very much liked by the family. Wonderful texture.
Yes i made this for my culinary/pastry class during our International Sweet Week, and it turned out very well. It turned out so well that my instructor couldn’t figure out what area of the world it came from. Needless to say that i recieved a extra 5 points for him being unable to guess.
Very good forgiving recipe. As a previous review suggested, I added less sugar, some honey and lemon instead of rose water, added ground almond, fit it all in a different size of a pan (adjusting the baking time, too), and it turned out beautifully. We love mid-eastern desserts, but this is the first time I made this one, and it was a hit with an international crowd of friends. Will definitely do again. Thank you for sharing, Lubna!
This is very delicious and unique recipe that you must try. I used sliced almonds instead of almond halves and cut down the amount of sugar to 1 1/2 cups in the syrup. Since I baked this in a glass pan I turned down the oven tempature to 325 degrees. I did not find that there was too much of the syrup or that it was drowning in it, like some other reviewers found. We all just loved the flavor of the rosewater and we think this would also be great using orange flower water instead of rose water. Thanks for the great recipe!!!
I replaced the flour with ‘cream of wheat’ and the yogurt with sour cream and milk. It turned out really good besides the fact that it was too wet, next time I will use less of the syrup.
Good, but not the same as the real one.
This is the first time I try making besboosa, we normally buy it. Everyone pronounced it better than store bought!
This was pretty good, very sweet and easy to make. I would take the recommendation to decrease the syrup. I felt like it was floating in the syrup because not all of it got soaked up. Mine got cooked pretty fast on the edges even after I lowered the temperature in the oven. Next time, I’ll try to cook it at 325 or so and I’ll add the extra coconut.
This recipe did not come out right at all. I followed everything EXCEPT, I set it aside for an hour instead of 30 minutes. I don’t think that alone would have caused such a terrible outcome. First of all 20 minutes + 3 minutes of broiling was far from enough time to cook this basboosa thoroughly. The top was browned very nicely so I added the syrup. When I cut out a square, I realized the inside was raw and uncooked as ever. So I returned it to the oven for 22 more minutes (total 45 minutes)….still brown on the outside but raw on the inside.
I really like this dessert. I followed the suggestion of TUNISIANSWIFE and used equal parts of sugar and water to make the syrup. I’m not a big fan of rosewater, so I used lemon juice. The other basboosa recipe on allrecipes uses lemon juice. I used Cream of Wheat because I couldn’t find semolina flour, and it worked. I broiled the cake for two minutes, and it was overdone. Next time, I’ll reduce the time to one minute.
this is wonderful and so simple. I made this as a Ramadan dessert treat for my DH and his friends. I upped the coconut by 1 tbsp. Decreased the sugar in the syrup by 1/4 cup and just boiled it a bit longer to get the right consistency for simple syrup. I had homemade rosewater my sister in law made and it is a bit stronger than store-bought. I still upped the rosewater by about 1tbsp. I just taste-tested the syrup after it was finished and adjusted accordingly. The flavor was not overpowering and was just perfect. Orange blossom water can also be substituted. **You may see semolina flour packaged as “cream of wheat” in a Middle Eastern or Indian grocery; it is the same as semolina flour, just a different name. Even though mine got a little too brown on top, it did not affect the flavor. Next time I’ll only do 1 minute under the broiler. As it cools, it will absorb the simple syrup. These are also just as good served cold. Thanks so much for this wonderful simple recipe that will become a staple for my husband’s sweet tooth!
This was delicious! I used only a fraction of the syrup called for however – saved the rest as most of the first batch got eaten today by friends and coworkers! I also had only 3/4 cup of yogurt but went ahead anyway. I upped the coconut slightly and ended up having to cook it an additional 6 minutes, and then under the broiler for about 45 seconds.
I did not have coconut so I skipped that off. Did not have rose water at hand either so followed the idea of another member. Would prefer the rose water taste though. I used just 1 cup sugar for the syrup and it was still SO sweet. I thought the water was too much too… made the basboosa very moist. Perhaps would use only 3/4 cup water next time with maybe 1/2 cup sugar. Thanks for the recipe.
This was WONDERFUL!!! My mom loved this! It was pretty simple to make too considering how much preperation, time, money, and skill most gormet recipes take. Loved it! Will use any of your recipes again! Thanks, a grateful 18 year old
This is indeed a good recipe, i just made slight changes as follows: did not use rose water for the syrup, bud added 1 teaspoon of lemon juice and boiled together, once boiled, just stirred in 1-2 tablespoons honey. And used smaller baking dish, basboosa was thick and delicious! Thanks a lot!
This was okay. It was extremly sweet and I couldn’t really taste the rose water. I think it was over powered by the sugar.