Orange Blossom Water

Al-Qater or Sharbat or Shira is a basic ingredient in most Arabic desserts, it is known in English as Sugar Syrup.

Let’s make Al-Qater:

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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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Aqras is a kind of Syrian cookies. There are three recipes for Aqras, Aqras Helweh (Sweet Aqras) and this is the traditional one, and another recipe of Sweet Aqras which is the modern one, and a recipe of Aqras Malha (Salty Aqras). I’ll share with you the three recipes in separated posts.

Today’s recipe is about the traditional Aqras, there are no big differences between traditional and modern Aqras except the type of flour, the amount of yeast and the size.

Aqras was one of the foods that people took with them when they traveled on camels or by ships before the invention  of planes, for example, when people traveled on camels to Mecca to perform Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca), journey took months and Aqras was one of the best foods that remains long time without being affected or something happens to it.

My grandmother makes Aqras every few weeks, it is great for breakfast or as a snack with a cup of milk or hot tea and usually we eat them with jebneh, all Aqras recipes on this blog are from my grandmother.

Let’s make Aqras Helweh I:

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