The Somali dish sabaayad is a flour-based flatbread. It is soft on the inside and golden brown, crispy and flaky on the outside. It goes well with nearly everything, including stew, sauce, honey, cinnamon sugar, and a cup of tea. It can also be eaten on its own. When it’s still hot, my husband and I enjoy eating it with honey. My kids enjoy breaking them up into small pieces, placing them in a bowl, adding some sugar and shah (Somali tea), and then eating them that way.
| Prep Time: | 40 mins |
| Cook Time: | 10 mins |
| Additional Time: | 40 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 30 mins |
| Servings: | 20 |
| Yield: | 5 dozen |
Ingredients
- 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 2 cups flaked coconut
- 1 ½ cups margarine, softened
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- 1 cup white sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup water
- ¾ cup raspberry jam
Instructions
- Preheat an oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
- Mix flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, and coconut together in a bowl. Set aside. Beat the margarine, brown sugar, and white sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time. Beat in the vanilla extract and water with the last egg. Mix in the flour mixture until just incorporated. Add more flour if the dough becomes too sticky.
- Roll the dough into walnut-sized balls and place 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets. Make an indentation in each cookie using a 1/2 teaspoon size measuring spoon. Fill each cookie with the raspberry jam.
- Bake in the preheated oven until slightly golden, 10 to 12 minutes. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 333 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 44 g |
| Cholesterol | 19 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 3 g |
| Saturated Fat | 5 g |
| Sodium | 379 mg |
| Sugars | 26 g |
| Fat | 16 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
The worst recipe I’ve ever tried on this site! I don’t know how it got good reviews. They spread out like mad.
Just followed the recipe and these were delicious! I will definitely make them again next Christmas!
I tried to cut the recipe by 1/3 since there was so much dough, then said “Eff it!” and proceeded to make the whole lot. I am so glad I did! I omitted the water and added an extra egg, also used 1/2 C lightly packed brown sugar + 1/2 C white sugar and they are plenty sweet and taste great. A new holiday go-to for sure!!!
I made these at Christmas because I had some leftover Raspberry preserves. They turned out fantastic, huge hit with my boss. I had to make more after word got around the building.
First time I made it it’s okay need to adjust the recipe more to my taste, also used sugar substitute. Like the coconut texture.
So angry. Three sticks of butter wasted! They spread out huge!! And while the edges were overdone,the middles were raw! Didn’t change anything except that I refrigerated the dough after rolling to try and prevent spreading. What a waste of ingredients?
Versatile. I halved the recipe since I was low on flour. Used shortening in place of butter, worked fine. Also, I cut back on the sugars, omitted the water but added 1/4 cup maple syrup. Dropped onto cookie sheet with a teaspoon so I wouldn’t have to roll sticky dough. Worked great.
Amazing!!!!!
I added a third egg instead of the water. I also used unsalted butter (same amount). Needed a tablespoon and a half of additional flour once mixed. I placed the cookies w the jam on top in the fridge for 15 minutes to firm them up. I added a photo of them on a cooling rack. They spread out and are larger than I expected. Very tasty. Light with a crispy coconut taste.
Awesome! Fun to make with the little ones, my daughter had a blast making these cookies. She says they are her best cookies ever! And she loves to make them really big with lots of filling. Lol. They taste great too. Nearly all of the cookies we made yesterday are about gone. The only thing we done diffrent is use raspberry pie filling insted of jam since we didn’t have any raspberry jam. Turned out great!
Yum, not too sweet. Reading reviews, I omitted the water & used 3 eggs instead. Tiny bit of pie filling on top.(did blueberry & strawberry.) it’s only been a few hours & family has eaten more than half of the cookies! ??
Wonderful! The recipe is easy to follow. The cookies came out super light on the inside with a crisp on the outside. Love them! Will definately make them again next year for Christmas!
Very good cookie. I found the dough very gooey though and added quite a bit of extra flour and then used 2 teaspoons to drop onto cookie sheet to cook. The dough is quite sticky and that helped. I made them quite small, about 2/3 teaspoon size and this made them a better size when cooked. I was making something else and had leftover raspberry pie filling so found this recipe to use it up and have now added it to my Xmas baking list. Yummy. Sprinkled a bit of coconut on top for decoration.
i did that recipie today it rocks indeed but i used olive oil instead of margarine and handmade peach jam and only 1 cup brown sugar
So I’m wondering for those of you who had rather flat cookies, did you completely melt the margarine, or just til it was soft? My mom always taught me that the “runnier” your margarine is, the flatter your cookies will be. Just a tip. 🙂
Thanks for the recipe My grandkids cant eat nuts so this will work great for them.
these flattened on me terribly. i hoped they would be more like the cookies you buy at the store with the jam centers. This tasted more like a cut out sugar cookie with jam that melted all over it. These were very yummy. I loved the taste but didnt like the way they looked.
Loved the flavor, but they spread out a lot. I made them with the water. I will try again without the water and a little more flour to try to keep their shape.
These are great!!!! I was looking for a recipe like this for ages. I read the used 3 eggs and no water….. They were fantastic 🙂
These cookies rock!!! Definitely a keeper!! I used raspberry like the recipe called for. YUMMMM–I can’t stop eating the dough.