Six Egyptian Desserts You Need To Try - Google Arts & Culture (2024)

Indulge your sweet tooth in Egypt

By Google Arts & Culture

Oriental Sweets by Agency: The FactoryNawaya

The sweetest land of all

In Egypt desserts and sweets are created to celebrate special days andreligious times or simply because they are delicious. Here are six of Egypt's sweetest treats.

Omm Ali by Agency: The FactoryNawaya

1. Omm Ali

Omm Ali is a staple of Egyptian desserts. It can be found throughout Egypt in both everyday and up-market restaurants as well as on the dining table of any Egyptian family dinner.

Omm Ali by Agency: The FactoryNawaya

Omm Ali is a baked pudding made using bread or flaked pastry in a tagine (ceramic bowl), with milk, sugar, nuts, and cream poured on top before it is placed under the grill which creates its signature golden color.

2. Roz be Laban

If you are a rice pudding fan, the Egyptian version is a must-try, infused with different spices and topped with crushed pistachios. The green and white colors give it a serene feel. It is one of the most easy-to-make desserts and the fastest to whip up for gatherings.

Roz Bil Laban by Agency: The FactoryNawaya

In addition to it being served in the majority of Egyptian restaurants, there are special "Dairy" (Alban) shops that sell rice pudding amongst other fresh dairy products and milk-based desserts.

Roz Bil Laban by Agency: The FactoryNawaya

Don't miss eating rice pudding in an oriental restaurant in Egypt, such as Khan-El-Khalili, where an array of toppings are available to make your palette tingle, from traditional nuts, to honey, cream, ice-cream, and fresh fruits. Or how about Roz be Laban with all the toppings?

Katayeff by Agency: The FactoryNawaya

3. Qatayef

Qatayef is common in the Arab world, mainly associated with the holy month of Ramadan. However, it is so popular that you can easily find it on Egyptian tables throughout the year, either in its dessert or savoury form.

Katayeff by Agency: The FactoryNawaya

Qatayef is like a sweet version of Spanish empanadas. Yeast, simple flour, and water batter is used to cook small, one sided, mini pancake circles. These are full of aerated holes at the top and sealed from the bottom as the dough touches the pan, just like an unflippedpancake.

Katayeff by Agency: The FactoryNawaya

The cooked mini pancakes are usually stuffed with a nut, raisin, and sugar mixture for the sweet versions, and cheese or mincemeat mixtures for savory versions.

Oriental Sweets by Agency: The FactoryNawaya

4. Basboosa

Basboosa is one of the most famous oriental sweets in Egypt. As much as it is associated with the month of Ramadan, you can still find it on Egyptian dining tables all year round due to the availability of its components and how easy it is to make at home.

The semolina flour-based Basboosa is also one of the cheapest desserts available. Eaten plain, with nuts, clotted cream, or both, Basboosa will be difficult to forget.

Luqmat Adi (Judge's Bite) DessertRAWI Publishing

5. Zalabia

Zalabia is an Egyptian donut, or the Egyptian descendant of Greek Loukoumades. It is made of a delicate batter which is spooned into frying oil to produce a fluffy, crunchy, sweet dessert.

You can indulge in Zalabia covered in sugar syrup or sprinkled with powdered sugar. Modern spins on the classic dish include melted chocolate or caramel poured on top.

Zalabia is a year-round dessert, homemade or bought in shops. It is considered one of Egypt's most popular street desserts available throughout the country.

Kunafa by Agency: The FactoryNawaya

6. Kunafa

Another oriental dessert associated with the holy month of Ramadan is Kunafa. You can still find it in dessert shops all year round, sold independently or as part of an oriental sweets mixed dish.

Kunafa by Agency: The FactoryNawaya

The traditional Egyptian version of Kunafa can be filled with a nut mixture with sugar, cream, vanilla puddings or mangoes. Imported or modernized versions include mild-cheese fillings such as Ricotta, custard, or single layered Konafa with nutella or even half a red velvet cake on top. That's right, Konafa comes to Egyptians in a different popular fashion every ramadan!

Kunafa by Agency: The FactoryNawaya

However, because Konafa is specially crafted, creating very thin, hair-like, dried up dough, it is more available for home cooking during the month of Ramadan, where the raw dough is sold at grocery stores and local bakery stores (Al Forn).

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Six Egyptian Desserts You Need To Try - Google Arts & Culture (2024)

FAQs

Six Egyptian Desserts You Need To Try - Google Arts & Culture? ›

Om Ali - milky custard over pastry, nuts, coconut flakes and dried fruit, baked in the oven. Sort of like an Egyptian bread-and-butter pudding, but nicer. Rice Pudding - not unlike the English one, but has rose water or cardamom. Other sweets like Lebanese pastry, such as semolina cake or shredded pastry with nuts.

What are some Egyptian desserts? ›

Om Ali - milky custard over pastry, nuts, coconut flakes and dried fruit, baked in the oven. Sort of like an Egyptian bread-and-butter pudding, but nicer. Rice Pudding - not unlike the English one, but has rose water or cardamom. Other sweets like Lebanese pastry, such as semolina cake or shredded pastry with nuts.

What is the national dessert of Egypt? ›

Om Ali, Omali, Umm Ali, or Oumm Ali (Egyptian Arabic: أم على), meaning "Mother of Ali", is a traditional Egyptian dessert, and is a national dessert of Egypt.

What did ancient Egyptians have for dessert? ›

The festival dessert menu generally consisted of raisin bread, sweet bread, fried pastries, honey cakes, and sweetmeats. Ancient Egyptians did not use sugar; desserts were sweetened with dates and honey.

What are traditional Egyptian foods? ›

Examples of Egyptian dishes include rice-stuffed vegetables and grape leaves, hummus, falafel, shawarma, kebab and kofta. Others include ful medames, mashed fava beans; koshary, lentils and pasta; and molokhiyya, bush okra stew.

How many deserts are in Egypt? ›

Egypt includes three deserts: (1) the Eastern, (2) the Western, and (3) Sinai. The Nile land, with its valley and delta, forms the fertile arable lands.

What four deserts are found in Egypt? ›

The regions of ancient Egypt, Kush, and Canaan were surrounded by four main deserts: the Sahara, the Nubian Desert, the Arabian Desert, and the Negev Desert. The fertile Nile River Valley also played a critical geographical role for these civilizations.

Who is the Egyptian god of dessert? ›

Seth (Set), son of Geb (Earth) and Nut (sky), brother of Osiris, was god of the desert, foreign lands, thunderstorms, eclipses, and earthquakes. Seth was a powerful and often frightening deity, however he was also a patron god of the pharaohs, particularly Ramses the Great.

Is baklava Egyptian? ›

Baklava, is one of the most important desserts on the Egyptian table, especially during Ramadan. It is special thin, rectangular sheets of dough called goulash in Egypt, and filo in some Mediterranean countries such as Greece and Sicily. It is usually stuffed with walnuts or pistachios and sweetened with honey.

What dessert is the pyramid of Giza in? ›

The Great Pyramids in Facts and Figures

Khufu's pyramid is the largest and oldest of Giza's three pyramids, built on the sands of the Sahara Desert beside what is now modern Cairo.

What ancient Egypt was a desert? ›

Egypt then was much as it is now - a strip of green, fertile land along the Nile Valley, and arid desert and mountains to each side of it. When the pyramids were being built, was the surrounding area a desert? No , during the Nile flood, the whole Giza area was developed into canals and waterways.

What did the Egyptians eat in the desert? ›

They cooked lentils and peas, made stews from leafy vegetables and had figs and grapes for dessert. Wild honey was available to eat and used to sweeten cakes made from Tiger nut flour, wheat, barley or other grains.

What is the most popular dessert in Cairo? ›

Here are the best egyptian desserts – And regional favorites:
  1. Basbousa. This famous semolina sweet cake is likely what comes to mind when you think of Middle Eastern sweets. ...
  2. Um Ali. ...
  3. Balah El Sham. ...
  4. Lokmet El Kadi. ...
  5. Baklava. ...
  6. Qatayef. ...
  7. Konafa. ...
  8. Meshabek.
May 23, 2019

What are 10 ancient Egyptian foods? ›

These included emmer wheat, garlic, chickpeas, lentils, cumin, watermelon, fenugreek and coriander seeds, figs, dates, dum palm fruits, Christ thorn, pomegranates, juniper berries, and almonds. Some of these were typical food in ancient Egypt, but others, such as the almonds, may have been foreign imports.

What is Egypt's national dish? ›

Koshary, kushari or koshari (Egyptian Arabic: كشرى [ˈkoʃæɾi]) is Egypt's national dish and a widely popular street food. It is a traditional Egyptian staple, mixing pasta, Egyptian fried rice, vermicelli and brown lentils, and topped with chickpeas, a garlicky tomato sauce, garlic vinegar, and crispy fried onions.

What is a typical Egyptian breakfast? ›

Ful (Fava Beans)

Today, slowly stewed fava beans are the go-to Egyptian breakfast, but this hasn't always been the case.

What is the popular Egyptian snack? ›

1- Ful Medames

The most popular street food snack in Egypt, Ful is a paste of mashed broad (fava) beans flavored with garlic and olive oil.

What is the most popular Arabic dessert? ›

Baklava is the most popular Arabic dessert. It is a traditional layered pastry dessert made by layering layers of phyllo pastry that are filled with a mixture of nuts and cinnamon (usually using pistachios) and sweetened with syrup or honey.

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