Almond-Coconut Basbusa Snack Cake

I came up with this recipe, based on the many tender, semolina-based cakes I’ve had in Arab, Palestinian, and Israeli homes and restaurants, to use up either the ground almond meal left over from making Date-Sweetened Almond Milk or Roasted Almond Rosetta Syrup. I like to bake this up and let it sit around, because it gets even better a day or two later.

Makes about 40 pieces

Active Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

¾ cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for greasing the pan

1⅔ cups almond meal, or leftover ground almonds from making Roasted Almond Rosetta syrup (recipe follows) or Date-Sweetened Almond Milk

1¼ cups fine semolina

¾ cup sugar

½ cup finely shredded unsweetened coconut

⅓ cup all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon fine sea salt

1 cup buttermilk, shaken

3 large eggs

Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

½ cup Roasted Almond Rosetta Syrup (recipe follows) or store-bought orgeat (almond syrup; see Shopping Guide)

25 blanched roasted almond halves or slivered almonds

Preheat the oven to 300°F. Grease a 9 x 13-inch baking dish or quarter sheet pan (or two 8- or 9-inch round cake layer pans) with olive oil and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the almond meal, semolina, sugar, coconut, flour, baking powder, salt, buttermilk, olive oil, eggs, lemon zest, and vanilla.

Transfer the batter to the prepared pan (or pans) and bake until the cake is set and just firm in the center, 22 to 24 minutes if using almond meal or 26 to 28 minutes if using leftover ground almonds from syrup. Remove from the oven and immediately pour the syrup all over the cake. Using a sharp knife, slice the cake on a 45-degree angle in strips 1½ inches apart. Rotate the pan and make another set of cuts to form diamond-shaped pieces of cake. Press an almond into the center of each diamond. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Roasted Almond Rosetta Syrup

For years I kept a bottle of supermarket rosetta—a syrupy, almond-flavored concentrate with Tunisian roots—at home to flavor seltzer or drizzle over fruit. One day while buying halvah from Linda, the octogenarian shopkeeper of my favorite halvah vendor in Tel Aviv’s Levinsky Market, I noticed a few cloudy, unmarked bottles next to the pomegranate and date syrup. “Don’t tell me you’ve been buying that rosetta garbage from the supermarket?” she asked. It turns out the innocuous-looking store brands contain artificial flavors, corn syrup—and even white food coloring. I bought a bottle from her, then tinkered with a recipe of my own to coax out every drop of almond flavor. First, I roast the nuts longer than usual to a deep shade of brown, then grind them and add them to simple syrup with a bit of orange and cardamom flavor for contrast. The result is a surprisingly complex, nutty flavor component that works especially well in cocktails like my Almondy Vodka Limonana or simply mixed with seltzer (pictured, right).

Makes 2¾ cups

Active Time: 30 minutes

Total time: 3 hours (including minimum infusing time)

2 cups blanched almonds (sliced or whole are fine)

2 cups sugar

3 cardamom pods

Rind from half a lemon or small orange

Preheat the oven to 325°F.

Arrange the almonds on a large rimmed baking sheet and toast, shaking the pan once midway through, until deep golden and fragrant, 12 to 15 minutes, depending on whether you’re using sliced or whole almonds. Remove from the oven, transfer to a plate, and cool completely. Transfer the nuts to the bowl of a food processor and process until fine crumbs form, before you reach the almost-at-almond-butter stage (you want the almonds to be crumbly but not tiny), 15 to 20 seconds.

In a medium saucepan, bring 2½ cups water and the sugar to a boil over medium-high heat, reduce the heat, and let simmer until a syrup forms, 5 to 6 minutes. Add the ground almonds and the cardamom pods, return to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer for 5 more minutes. Remove the saucepan from the heat, add the orange rind, and let the whole thing sit on the counter for at least 2 hours and up to 8 (the longer it sits, the more almondy it will be). Strain the syrup through a fine-mesh sieve, pressing down with a wooden spoon to extract as much of the syrup as you can. Remove and discard the rind and cardamom pods and reserve the ground almonds for Almond-Coconut Basbusa Snack Cake, if desired. Decant into a bottle and seal with a tight-fitting cork or top. The syrup will separate, but don’t worry; that’s just very fine particles of almond solids sinking to the bottom. Simply re-shake before using. The syrup will keep, refrigerated, for up to 6 months.