Orange Blossom Water

The Syrian pistachio tree is known since Assyrians age. The origin of this tree goes back to Al-Batim Tree in the Mediterranean sea basin and Middle East regions; however, the original place of the Syrian pistachio is Syria (Ein Al-Tina). Many references refer to this kind as (Pistachio – Pistacia vera L.) known since 3500 years BC in West Asia and “Great Syria” countries. The Aleppo pistachio is attributed to Aleppo city which is the traditional area for planting this tree since long ages; therefore, whenever Aleppo city is mentioned, we have to mention the Aleppo pistachio (Fustuq Halabi). In Aleppo, the pistachio blossomed producing a dozen varieties, a unique diversity. These varieties differ both in the color and the size of the fruit on the tree. As the taste and scent, the soil and position of the trees provide the variations. Pistachio is important ingredient in the traditional cuisine of Aleppo.

Ghraibeh is a shortbread type biscuit, and today’s recipe is Ghraibeh Bel-Fustuq Al-Halabi (Pistachio Ghraibeh) which is similar to original Ghraibeh but made with pistachio.

Let’s make Ghraibeh Bel-Fustuq Al-Halabi:

1, 2. Put ghee in a big bowl.

3, 4. Add powdered sugar to ghee.

5, 6, 7, 8. Mix ghee and powdered sugar with your hand to combine and the color of the mixture becomes pale off-white as in picture 8.

9, 10, 11. Add green food coloring to the mixture, and mix with your hand to combine.

12, 13, 14, 15, 16. Add fine ground pistachio to the mixture, and mix with your hand to combine.

17 – 24. Add flour to the mixture, and knead until a mass of dough is formed, you should have a soft dough that doesn’t stick to your hand. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let the dough rest in the refrigerator for 24 hours.

After 24 hours, take the dough out of the refrigerator and keep at room temperature for 1 hour.

25, 26, 27. After 1 hour, take a piece of the dough, and form it into a ball.

29. Each ball equals to 4 grams.

30 – 36. Place dough balls on ungreased baking sheet. Place pistachio on top of each ball, and gently press the pistachio. Put the baking sheet in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

37, 38, 39, 40. After 30 minutes, bake in preheated oven at 300 °F (150 °C) for 15 – 18 minutes or until the bottom becomes light golden in color, the color of the top shouldn’t change but it should be dry when you touch it. Let baked cookies stand 15 minutes on baking sheet, the remove to cooling rack. Cool completely, then store them in airtight container at room temperature.

41. Serve.

Ghraibeh Bel-Fustuq Al-Halabi

From: Chef Mohammad Orfali / Servings: 80 Cookies
PDF Text Only / Print With Images

Notes and Tips

You should work in a cool place.

It is really important to use good quality ghee.

I tested the recipe with butter instead of ghee, and preferred the ghee version over the butter version.

Click here to see the liquid food coloring I used.

I used ungreased aluminum baking sheet, and baked ghraibeh in an electric oven.

My oven has two functions:
The oven upper burner “broiler”
The oven bottom burner “bake function”
I can turn on both of the together, and I can turn off one of them and keep the other on.
I baked ghraibeh with both lower burner “bake function” and upper burner “broiler” are turn on. I baked them until the bottom becomes light golden in color but the color of the top shouldn’t change but it should be dry when you touch it.

Be careful when baking the cookies because they might get burned easily.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 31st, 2016 at 10:41 AM and is filed under Syrian Baking and Desserts, To Aleppo With Love. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.