Egyptian Lenza
"Lenza" For me the name was very new, as I have never heard before about this Traditional Egyptian dessert until I have read about it in Arabic Flavour group. It was the recipe of the month hosted by the beautiful Manal afify. The amazing dessert you see in the coming photos is called Lenza/Linza,which is very famous in Egypt,Damietta city.
Linza is a delicious traditional desert ,it is a mix of cake and Basbousa (semolina cake), with a smooth thick Muhalabia(milk pudding) filling ,and drizzled with simple sugar syrup right after baked hot in the oven.It can be easily prepared in a tart pan, and decorated with some preserved cherries and chopped pistachios!
So, very simple ingredients that are available in every house pantry; such as flour, butter,eggs,and shredded coconut. And Viola!
I can guarantee that you are going to sense a very delicious symphony of flavors from the first bite :)
will leave you with the full recipe adapted from Arabic Flavour, Enjoy!
Egyptian Lenza
Ingredients :
- 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 1 cup shredded coconut
- 1 cup soft butter, room temperature
- 1 cup powered sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 Tsp Vanilla extract
- Pinch of salt
For the stuffing Cream :
- 2 cups of milk
- 4 Tbsp cornstarch
- 2 Tbsp sugar
- 1 Tbsp whipping cream powder
For Sugar syrup:
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup water
- squeeze of half a lemon
Directions:
To prepare the cream stuffing:
- In a thick bottom pot mix milk, sugar, cornstarch and powered whipping cream all together until well dissolved. Heat and mix continuously until it thickens. Keep aside to cool.
To prepare the semolina Cake mix :
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
- Beat soft butter with sugar very well until creamy and fluffy.
- Add the eggs one by one and continue mixing.
- Add vanilla and salt.
- In a separate bowl sift flour and mix with shredded coconut.
- Add it to the butter mixture and continue mixing until you reach a soft cake like consistency.
- Prepare a pie baking dish or any baking pan you prefer.
Grease the sides if it’s nonstick.
- Take 3/4 of the mix, spread it out evenly up to the edges of the baking dish. You may need to oil or wet your hands while doing this to prevent the dough from sticking to them.
- Spread the cream stuffing equally without reaching the edges to prevent it from burning while baking.
- Pipe the rest of the dough using a pipping bag with a decorative nozzle. Make medium sized lines on the top to create diamond shapes while keeping enough distance between them as they will spread while baking.
- Decorate with preserved cherries - Bake for 20-25 minutes.
- Prepare sugar syrup by boiling together the amount of sugar and water.
- When the cake is baked, soak with the syrup and let it cool before serving.
- Garnish with some crushed pistachios.
Bon appétit :)
