In Upper Egypt, sweets are generally made of flour, yeast, ghee, honey and fruits (and, recently, sugar). The dough can take the form of oven-baked pies, can be fried in oil or can be made into a porridge by mixing flour with water and putting it on the fire in the form of a ball, to which ghee and honey are added.
Folded Pie
Ingredients:
2 cups wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup warm water for kneading
1 cup oil to fry
1 cup honey or powdered sugar
Instructions:
1) Sift flour, add salt and water and shake to let air through. Leave for 1/2 hour.
2) Press dough until it becomes thin.
3) Fold into the form of a small square the size of your palm.
4) Fry in hot oil on both sides for 5 minutes until it becomes reddish. Sprinkle with sugar while still hot.
Dumplings
Ingredients:
2 cups wheat flour
1/2 cup fermented dough
1 cup warm water for kneading
Heavy oil for frying
1 cup black honey or powdered sugar
1 teaspoon soft cinnamon
Instructions:
1) Add yeast to flour and salt and knead with water to make a light dough. Leave to ferment for one hour.
2) Pour dough in oil in the form of perforated discs or small balls. Fry until it turns gold.
3) Remove dumplings, add honey or sugar and cinnamon.
Crocodile-shaped date loaves
In the first century AD, crocodiles were believed to be harbingers of good luck, perhaps because the ancient Egyptian god Sobek was portrayed in the form of a crocodile or a man with the head of a crocodile.
Ingredients:
1 cup full-fat milk (cow or goat milk)
1/2 cup of butter
2 cups date honey
1/2 kg mashed dates
1 cup grated coconuts
Instructions:
1) Mix milk with butter and honey and cook into the form of a ball.
2) Add mashed dates and stir so as to take the form of a ball without sticking to the frying pan.
3) Remove from fire and add grated coconuts.
4) Continue kneading.
5) Put dough in a clean wet cloth in the form of a loaf.
6) Cut into slices and leave to cool.
