Orange Blossom Water

Al-Hboub is prepared from peeled wheat berries cooked with rice, dried chickpeas, dried fava beans, dried white beans, almond halves, sugar, ground anise seeds, and ground fennel seeds. Then garnished with ground anise seeds, ground fennel seeds, desiccated coconut, almond flakes, slivered pistachios and sugar coated fennel seeds.

When People eat hboub they say (Aklana hboub la’n faraqna al-mahboub), it means (we ate hboub because we left the place we love, the place is Mecca and people miss Mecca after performing Hajj “pilgrimage to Mecca”), so they miss Mecca which is a place they love “mahboub” and they eat “hboub” to remember  Mecca. “Hboub” and “Mahboub” is a repetition of similar sounds in two words.

Let’s make Al-Hboub:

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This is the third recipe for Aqras (read the first recipe here Aqras Helweh I and the second recipe here Aqras Helweh II). Today’s recipe is the salty version, the dough is prepared with salt and no sugar is added to the recipe, and Salty Aqras is made without sesame seeds.

Let’s make Aqras Malha:

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This is the second recipe for Sweet Aqras (read the first recipe here Aqras Helweh I). Today’s recipe is the modern version of sweet Aqras, and it has another name which is (Aqras Al-Barazeq), the changes here are the type of flour, the amount of yeast and the size.

Let’s make Aqras Helweh II:

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