This is a serious guilty pleasure! A mouthwatering cake made with coconut and semolina. In the Middle East and North Africa, semolina is widely used in desserts: cookies, pastries, cakes, you name it. It adds an different texture than wheat flour. This recipe is a variation on the nutty version I posted previously. The flowery sirup with roze water and orange blossom makes it truly Middel Eastern. So much goodness!
Ingredients
- 400 gr semolina
- 75 gr dessicated coconut, plus extra for garnish
- 125 gr (plant-based) butter
- 125 gr sugar
- 10 gr baking powder
- 100 ml water
Sugar sirup
- 300 gr sugar
- 150 ml water
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon rose water
- 1 tablespoon orange blossom water
Directions
- Melt the butter, set aside and let cool a little.
- Mix the semolina, sugar, coconut and the melted butter with your hands.
- Cover with a tea towel set aside to rest for about an hour.
- Add the water and baking powder to the semolina mix to get a nice dough.
- Butter or spray a round baking tray and the dough. Set aside and let rest for another hour.
- In the meantime, make the sugar syrup. Put the water and sugar in a pan on medium heat until the sugar in completely melted.
- Stir in the orange blossom water, rose water and lemon juice and set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Bake for about 45 minutes, until golden brown.
- As soon as you remove the nammoura from the oven, pour with a soup ladle the sugar syrup, one ladle at a time until all the syrup has been soaked up.
- In a dry pan, roast some coconut golden brown and spread on the nammoura; use roasted and unroasted coconut for a nice effect.
