Namoura (Egg free Lebanese Cake)

It is so strange how a smell can bring back a lot of memories from your childhood. During the Eid el Adha I went to a sweet shop to buy something, and I saw and smelt Namoura. I remembered when I was young, a vendor used to come to our neighborhood with his trolley selling Namoura and we loved eating it with our hands. As I grew up it was one of the first sweet recipes I learnt from my mother. This is an egg free, butter free Lebanese cake, that can be made on any occasion and can last for quite a while time without any alteration to the taste.

Ingredients: 

• 2 1/2 cup semolina
• 1 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• a pinch of salt
• 2 cups yogurt
• 1/2 cup orange blossom water
• 2 tablespoons tahini
• 1 cup of almonds for decoration

Sugar syrup:

• 3 cups sugar
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup orange blossom water
• teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon butter

Preparation:

• Mix the semolina with bicarbonate of soda, sugar and salt
• Gradually add the orange blossom water while stirring with a spoon
• Add the yogurt and stir until all the ingredients are well mixed
• Cover the mixture with a clean towel and leave it to rest for half an hour
• Preheat the oven to 180 C
• Grease a 40 cm diameter tray with tahini, pour the mixture in the tray, decorate with the almonds and bake it for about 35 minutes, until the cake becomes golden
• In the meantime prepare the sugar syrup, boil the sugar with water until it thickens, then add the lemon juice, the orange blossom water and the butter
• When the Namoura is baked remove from the oven and put over it the hot sugar syrup, and put it in the oven  again for 5 minutes

• Remove the tray from the oven and let it cool, then cut into squares or diamond shape and serve

ET VOILA… C’EST TOUT.