Afghani Recipes
Afghani Dessert Recipes
Welcome
to our Afghani recipes. We hope you will enjoy them. you may shop for Afghani
groceries here to make these scrumptious dishes.
Bride's
Fingers - (Asabia el Aroos)
These lovely slender crisps of filo filled with sweetened nuts are as heavenly as baklava,
much easier to prepare and to eat, and lower in calories and fat. Nuts provide protein and
healthy quantities of fiber, as well as containing traces of many important elements
necessary to good health.
Ingredients
Sweet Syrup: (See recipe below)
1/2 package (16 oz.) frozen filo dough, completely defrosted
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted (optional)
Filling
1/2 cup almonds or pistachios, pulverized in food processor with
1/3 cup sugar
Glaze
1 egg, beaten
sugar
Directions
1. Prepare the syrup in advance and chill in the refrigerator.
2. Combine the filling ingredients.
3. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Grease 1 or 2 baking sheets.
4. Cut the filo in half crosswise and again in half, stacking the covering with a slightly
dampened towel to prevent drying. Lay 2 rectangles on your work surface with the shorter
sides facing you, and brush lightly with melted butter.
5. Place a rounded tablespoon of the filling in a line across the shorter side of filo
that faces you. Fold the longer edges of the pastry inward, sealing in the sides of the
filling, and roll the pastry up from the short side, forming a fat cigar shape. Place on
the baking sheet with the cut edge down. Repeat with remaining dough.
6. Brush the tops of the pastries lightly with a bit of beaten egg and sprinkle with
sugar.
7. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until golden brown.
8. Dip the warm fingers into cool Sweet Syrup and arrange on a serving tray. Serve at room
temperature.
Syrup
The general rule for syrup is to pour hot syrup over cold (or room temperature) pastries
and to serve cold syrup over hot pastries.
In some areas, eating syrup and honey is superstitiously believed to ward off the djinn
(evil spirits) and to make life sweeter.
3 cups sugar
1-1/2 cups water
1 lemon
1 tbsp. orange-blossom water or rosewater
1. Boil the sugar with the water until dissolved and viscous, about 10 minutes.
2. Stir in the remaining ingredients and remove from the heat.
Baklava
Ingredients
Fillo dough
1/2 pound Unsalted butter
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 1/2 cups Sugar
1 tsp. Cardamon
Almonds
1 tsp. Lemon Juice
1 1/2 cups Water
Crushed Pistachios
First, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Next, melt the butter over very low heat. Combine
freshly ground cardamon cinnamon in a small bowl. Lay two layers of fillo dough on a
baking sheet, and pour two tablespoons of melted butter over the dough. Use a pastry brush
to spread the butter.
Next, sprinkle a thin layer of fresh almond nuts, and a small amount of the
cinnamon/cardamon mixture. Repeat this until you have several layers. On the top layer,
only spread melted butter. Bake the baklava at 375 degrees, until the fillo dough is
golden brown. At this point, remove the baklava from the oven and prepare the syrup.
For the syrup... Combine one and one-half cups of water with one and one-half cups of
sugar, and one teaspoon of fresh lemon juice. Bring the mix to a boil, turn down the heat
and simmer for 5 minutes. While the baklava is still warm, cut it into small triangle
shapes and drizzle the syrup over the baklava. To finish, sprinkle with crushed pistachio
nuts.
Khatai Cookies
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups White Flour
1 cup Sugar
3/4 cupCorn Oil
1 tablespoon crushed Cardamon
Pistachios
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix the white flour with the sugar, and crushed cardamon.
Next, add the corn oil and mix well. Make the dough into two inch round balls and put them
on a cookie sheet and bake for 15min, or until lightly browned. Sprinkle finely ground
pistachios on top of the cookies while they are still hot.
I just got an email warning me that these should be eaten when cooled
Firnee
Ingredients
2 cups Whole Milk
1 cup Sugar
4 tablespoons Corn Starch
1 tsp. Cardamom
Pistachios
1 capful Rose water
Directions
Mix whole milk with cornstarch and cardamon and rose water in a sauce pan. Bring it to a
boil. PLEASE NOTE: You must stir constantly, if you do not, the dessert will NOT turn out
properly!!! When the mix comes to a boil, remove from the stove, and put into a shallow
serving dish. Refrigerate and serve with finely chopped pistachios sprinkled on top.
Sheer Payra Fudge
Ingredients
2 c. sugar
2/3 c. milk
1/4 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. light corn syrup
2 Tbsp. butter
1/2 tsp. cardamom
1/4 c. pistachio nuts, chopped
1/4 c. walnuts, chopped
Directions
In a saucepan, cook milk, sugar, corn syrup and salt over medium heat, stirring
occasionally, until sugar dissolves. Cook to 240ø on a candy thermometer. Remove from
heat. Add butter. Cool mixture to 120ø without stirring. Add cardamom, beating vigorously
until candy is thick and no longer glossy. Quickly stir in nuts. Spread mixture into a
buttered pan. Let stand until firm. Cut into squares.
Gosh
Feel (Elephant Ear Pastries)
40 servings
Ingredients
2 Eggs
2 ts Caster sugar
1/4 ts Salt
1/2 c Milk
4 ts Oil
2 1/2 c Plain flour
1/4 c Plain flour for kneading
1/2 ts Ground cardamom
Oil for deep-frying
1 c Icing (confectioners') sugar
1/2 ts Ground cardamom (optional)
1/2 c Finely chopped pistachios
*Note: Pistachio nuts should be blanched. Optionally, same amount of finely chopped
walnuts may be used intead of pistachios.
Directions
Beat eggs until frothy, beat in sugar and salt. Stir in milk and oil. Sift flour, add half
to egg mixture and blend in with wooden spoon. Gradually stir in remainder of flour,
holding back about 1/2 cup. Turn onto floured board and dust with some of reserved flour.
Knead for 10 minutes until smooth and glossy, using more flour as required. Dough will
still be slightly sticky. Cover with plastic wrap and rest for 2 hours.
Take a piece of dough about the size of a large hazelnut and roll out on a floured board
to a circle about 8-10 cm (3-4 inches) in diameter. Gather up dough on one side and pinch,
forming a shape resembling an elephant ear. Place on a cloth and cover. Repeat with
remaining dough.
Deep fry one at a time in oil, heated to 190 C (375 F) turning to cook evenly. Fry until
golden, do not over-brown. As dough is rather elastic, the pastry tends to contract with
handling, so just before dropping pastry into hot oil, pull out lightly with fingers to
enlarge.
Drain pastries on paper towels. Sift icing sugar with cardamom if used and dust pastries
with mixture. Sprinkle with nuts and serve warm or cold. Store in a sealed container.
Alternative topping: Make a syrup with 1 cup sugar and 1/2 cup water. Bring to the boil
when sugar is dissolved and boil for 5 minutes. Dribble syrup onto warm pastries and
sprinkle with cardamom and nuts.
Halwaua-e-Aurd-e-Sujee
Serves 1
Ingredients
1 cup of Sugar
2 cup of Water
3/4 cup of Ghee
1 cup of Coarse semolina (farina)
1/4 cup of Pistachio nuts - blanched
1/4 up of Almonds - blanched & Slivered
1/2 tablespoons of Ground cardamom or to taste
1 tablespoons of Rosewater - See note Additional nuts to decorate
Directions
Combine sugar & water in saucepan & stir occasionally until dissolved, over medium
heat. Bring to a boil, & boil briskly for 5 minutes without stirring. Remove from heat
& leave aside in pan. In a deep heavy pan heat ghee & add semolina. Stir over
medium heat for 5 minutes. Semolina should not color.
Pour hot syrup into semolina, stirring constantly. When smoothly blended, reduce heat
& leave to cook, uncovered, until liquid is absorbed. Mixture should be thick but
still moist at this stage. Stir in nuts, cardamon & rosewater to taste.
Cover rim of pan with a cloth or 2 paper towels, put lid on tightly & leave on low
heat for 5 minutes. Turn off heat & leave pan undisturbed for 10 minutes.
Spread halwau on a flat, lightly oiled platter & decorate with nuts. Serve warm or
cold, cutting pieces into diamond shapes or squares.
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