CH’BAKIYA

braided sesame pastries

Ch’bakiya is the quintessential Ramadan (Muslim month of fasting) pastry in Morocco, served throughout the month with harira, a savory soup that is another Ramadan staple and the first thing Moroccans eat when they break their fast after sunset. The combination of the lemony soup and the sweet, crunchy pastry is unusual but quite delicious, and the pastries are well worth making even if they are a little time-consuming. Some cooks add ground almonds and ground aniseed to the pastry, but I like the texture and flavor of the pastry in this recipe. In Morocco, there are often two people involved in the preparation of ch’bakiya, one who continuously kneads the dough and another who shapes and fries it. I recommend that you enlist a friend, your partner, or even a keen youngster to help you. Not only will it make preparing the ch’bakiya easier but it will also be a lot more fun. And in the end, you will have the prettiest and most scrumptious pastries to offer with coffee and tea, or to take to friends as a gift. And of course, you can also serve them Moroccan style with harira soup.

MAKES ABOUT 30 PASTRIES

pastry

Pinch of saffron threads

2 Tbsp orange blossom water

1¹/₄ cups [125 g] sesame seeds

1²/₃ cups [250 g] unbleached all-purpose flour

Pinch of fine sea salt

¹/₈ tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp fast-acting (instant) yeast

1 large egg, beaten

1 Tbsp white wine vinegar

3 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted

¹/₃ cup plus 1 Tbsp [100 ml] warm water

syrup

4 small grains mastic (see page 55), crushed in a small mortar with a pestle to yield ¹/₄ tsp powdered mastic

3 cups [750 g] good-quality runny honey

2 Tbsp orange blossom water

Sunflower oil for frying

To make the pastry: Crush the saffron threads between your fingers or in a small mortar using a pestle. Put the crushed saffron in a small bowl and add the orange blossom water. Set aside to infuse.

Put the sesame seeds in a nonstick frying pan and place over medium heat. Toast the seeds, stirring continuously, until golden, about 10 minutes. Let cool, and then put half in a coffee or spice grinder reserved for nuts and seeds, or use the small bowl of your food processor and grind until very fine (this will take a few minutes). Reserve the other half for the garnish.

Put the flour in a mixing bowl. Add the ground sesame seeds, sea salt, cinnamon, and yeast and mix well. Add the saffron water, egg, vinegar, and melted butter. Work them into the flour mixture using the tips of your fingers. Gradually add the warm water and knead well for about 10 minutes until you have a smooth dough. If you have a stand mixer, by all means use it. I do this by hand.

Butter your work surface and rolling pin. Pinch off a piece of dough the size of a tangerine and roll it out thinly, about 2 mm thick. Cut into strips measuring about 4 in [10 cm] long by 1 in [2 cm] wide. Lift three strips and press the tops together. Braid the strips loosely and press the bottom ends together. Shape loosely into a round and press the ends together well so that the pastry does not unroll during cooking. Place on a plate and continue shaping the pastries, making sure you use up all the loose pieces.

To make the syrup: Stir the crushed mastic with the honey and orange blossom water in a deep saucepan. Place over medium heat, bring to a gentle bubble, and immediately turn the heat to very low to keep the honey hot and liquid.

Pour enough sunflower oil into a large, deep frying pan to reach a depth of 1¹/₂ in [4 cm]. Place over medium-high heat. Check the temperature by dropping a piece of dough into the oil; if the oil bubbles around it, it’s ready. (A candy thermometer should register 350°F [180°C].) Drop in as many pastries as will fit comfortably without crowding.

Fry until browned all over, about 3 minutes, turning them several times.

Remove the pastries using a slotted spoon and drop them into the hot honey. Leave them for a few minutes, and then transfer to a serving dish. Repeat the process, making sure the oil does not get too hot. Sprinkle both sides of the finished pastries with the remaining toasted sesame seeds and let cool before serving.

MISKEH

mastic

Mastic is a dried resin that seeps out of the bark of the Pistacia lentiscus (the same genus as pistachios), an evergreen tree native to the Mediterranean basin. Mastic is harvested in July and August. Producers go to the fields early in the morning to make incisions in the trees, allowing the resin to seep out—a process called kentima. The transparent resin is then collected and rinsed in barrels, after which it is spread out and left to dry before being sorted by hand.

There are two kinds of dried mastic: clear, tiny grains called dahtilidopetres (flintstones), and the larger, spotted soft ones known as kantiles (blisters). The latter is the coarser grade. It is normally used for chewing—the resin is a natural chewing gum (mastic derives from the ancient Greek “to chew”)—while the finer grade is used in cooking. These days, however, it is becoming more and more difficult to purchase “flintstones.” Most mastic that is available now is the “blisters” type. In the summer of 2012, the fires on the Greek island of Chios, the world’s main producer of mastic. burned half the trees, so there is now a lot less mastic available.

Some mastic grains are very large, and when I call for grains in recipes, I mean those that are smaller than half the size of a cannellini bean. Reserve a small mortar and pestle that you use only for mastic so as not to corrupt the flavor, and crush the grains on demand. If you crush more than you need, simply wrap your mortar with plastic wrap and keep until you next need the mastic, or you can transfer to a jar for storage. I keep mine in the refrigerator, but that’s not necessary. Mastic will keep for up to 1 year.

SEMSUM

sesame seeds

Considered the oldest oilseed crop known to humankind, sesame was first used domestically more than five thousand years ago. In some places, it is known as a survivor crop because it is very drought tolerant and can grow where most crops fail. Sesame seeds, both raw and toasted, are widely used around the world in both sweet and savory dishes. You can buy the seeds ready-toasted or you can dry-toast them yourself in a pan over medium heat. You need to stir them all the time to make sure they do not burn, taking the pan off the heat just before they reach the right color, continuing to stir because they will keep browning from the heat of the pan.