Moroccan chebakia - sweet moroccan cookie with honey and sesame

Moroccan chebakia is considered one of the basic and main sweets at the iftar table during the holy month of Ramadan. It is considered one of the finest traditional Moroccan sweets. It is often served accompanied by Moroccan harira. It is also prepared at weddings.

Chebakia is one of the sweets that is fried in oil and drizzled in honey. The ingredients of Chebakia vary from one region to another, as does the method of interlacing.

Chebakia is considered one of the sweets that requires effort to prepare, and Moroccans cannot do without it during the holy month of Ramadan.

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs (1kg) of flour
• 1/4 lb melted butter
• 1/4 lb peeled, roasted and well ground almonds
• 1/4 oz baking powder ( 8g)
• 2 tsp anise
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 cup orange flower water
• 2.5 oz cup vinegar
• 1 tsp mastic or gum arabic drops
• 4 oz vegetable oil
• 2 tsp yeast
• 1 tsp saffron threads
• Half a cup of water if necessary, depending on the quality of flour
• 1/4 gallon vegetable oil
• 1/3 gallon Honey
• 7 oz Roasted ginger (sesame).

How to prepare :

First we are going to prepare the dough as following:

The dough

In a bowl or kneading machine, we put the sifted flour, ground anise

Add in ground cinnamon, mastic or gum arabic drops and roasted and ground almonds.

In a cup, dissolve the saffron with the orange flower water and stir, then add it to previous mixture.

Add in the baking powder, vegetable oil, vinegar and melted butter.

Mix well until we get a cohesive and soft dough.

We shape the dough into balls and leave them to rest for 15 minutes after covering them with plastic wrap.

We take a ball of dough and flatten it after sprinkling the surface with flour using a wooden roller until we obtain a rectangle with a thickness of 1/5 inch.

Form flower figures of chabakia

We cut the dough using a special chebakia mold or using jars (we form squares of 3 by 3 inches, then we make 4 holes using the jars without reaching the edge of the square) like the image below

We form the chebakia by taking each square, placing the finger between the holes (three pieces on the finger and two pieces under the finger), then we glue the two sides and turn the dough over to obtain the chebakia. We continue in this way until we complete all the dough balls.

Cook the dough

We heat the oil in a concave pot, then put the chebakia on medium heat until it becomes golden in color and in order for it to be even from the inside and to obtain a uniform color.

Remove the chebakia from the oil using a strainer until the oil drips, then place it directly in the honey (cover it with honey while it is hot).

We leave it in the honey for a while until it absorbs, then we remove it and put it in a strainer until it drips from the excess honey.

Place it in a plate and sprinkle it with roasted sesame seeds or roasted and crushed almonds.

You will get this beautiful and tasty chabakia as the image below

Tips on how to store the Chabakia

Families in morocco cook the chabakia once in a month and then use it for the whole month of holy Ramadan, so storing is very important in order to keep it fresh and tasty for everyday use. Here is how to store it properly

We take a plastic box for the freezer, then spread the food plastic and place the Chebakia piece next to another and cover it with the food plastic again.

We make layers of chebakia and food plastic until the quantity to be stored runs out and cover the food plastic from the surface, then close the box well and put it in the freezer.

In this way, we store the chebakia for a long time without it breaking and remaining honeyed and fragile.

When you want to consume Chebakia, we take it out of the freezer for 30 minutes before consuming it (we take out only the necessary amount because it is not possible to return it to the freezer again).