Orange Blossom Water

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:

1. In a pot, add ghee.

2. Melt ghee over low heat (only melt, do not heat or boil the ghee).

3. In a large bowl, mix flour, salt, instant yeast, and baker’s ammonia, mahlab and make a well.

4. To the well, add ghee.

5, 6. Add warm water, and knead all the ingredients until well combined, you have to spend time and knead the dough very well.

7. Let the dough rest for two hours.

7. After two hours, prepare meat grinder and attach to it the medium holed plate.

9, 10. Grind all the dough.

11, 12. Knead the dough using your hand after grinding.

13. This tool is called “Manqash Aqras” and is used specially for Aqras that’s why the name has the word Aqras, it is used for two reasons, the first to poke the aqras, and the second reason to gives a nice shape called “Naqsheh”.

14. Take a piece of the dough and weigh it, make all the pieces the same weight, approximately 64 – 65 g.

15. Take the piece of the dough.

16. Press using your hand.

17. Roll out this piece of dough to get  5.9 inch (15 cm) diameter circle, and 0.1 – 0.2 inches (3 – 4 mm) thickness.

8, 9, 10, 11. Place on aluminum sheet or non stick baking sheet , but do not grease the sheet, then use the “manqash” to poke holes, or you can use the fork.

22. Bake at 392 – 428 °F (200 – 220 °C) for 9 – 12 minutes, or until golden brown in color, remove from the oven and leave them on the baking sheet to cool for 10 minutes, then remove them from the sheet.

Store at room temperature in airtight container, serve with milk, or tea, or jebneh.

Aqras Malha

From: Family Recipe / Servings: 10 – 12 Cookies
PDF Text Only / Print With Images

125 g ghee, melted 500 g whole wheat flour 1 tbsp salt 1 tsp instant yeast 1/2 tsp baker’s ammonia 1 tbsp mahlab 3/4 cup warm water

In a pot, add ghee. Melt ghee over low heat (only melt, do not heat or boil the ghee). In a large bowl, mix flour, salt, instant yeast, and baker’s ammonia, mahlab and make a well. To the well, add ghee. Add warm water, and knead all the ingredients until well combined, you have to spend time and knead the dough very well. Let the dough rest for two hours. After two hours, prepare meat grinder and attach to it the medium holed plate.Grind all the dough. Knead the dough using your hand after grinding. This tool is called “Manqash Aqras” and is used specially for Aqras that’s why the name has the word Aqras, it is used for two reasons, the first to poke the aqras, and the second reason to gives a nice shape called “Naqsheh”. Take a piece of the dough and weigh it, make all the pieces the same weight, approximately 64 – 65 g. Take the piece of the dough. Press using your hand. Roll out this piece of dough to get 5.9 inch (15 cm) diameter circle, and 0.1 – 0.2 inches (3 – 4 mm) thickness. Place on aluminum sheet or non stick baking sheet , but do not grease the sheet, then use the “manqash” to poke holes, or you can use the fork. Bake at 392 – 428 °F (200 – 220 °C) for 9 – 12 minutes, or until golden brown in color, remove from the oven and leave them on the baking sheet to cool for 10 minutes, then remove them from the sheet. Store at room temperature in airtight container, serve with milk, or tea, or jebneh.

Notes and Tips

The following two notes are written on the bag of the flour I used:

Wheat Flour ATTA.

Flour number (2).

For baking, I used aluminum baking sheet.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 17th, 2010 at 12:29 AM and is filed under Syrian Baking and Desserts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.