Ramadan started this week, so in honor of, I made Sfouf (Turmeric Cake)

Sfouf is a Middle Eastern semolina turmeric cake, made with simple ingredients, no eggs and no butter. It’s vegan-friendly, light and simply delightful!

In line with the Coronavirus miniseries of shelf stable snacks, all these ingredients were in my pantry. I did not have semolina flour, so I substituted flaxseed and rice flour, also reduced the amount of sugar by half

Recipe

• 1 ½ cup coarse semolina or fine, or mixture of both
• ½ cup all-purpose or cake flour
• 1 tablespoon turmeric
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ½ cup canola oil or other neutral oil
• 1 cups milk
• 1 cup cane sugar (I used half this amount and they taste great)
• 1-2 tablespoons tahini to grease the pan can be replaced with oil
• Handful of pine nuts or almonds

1. Preheat the oven to 375ºF and grease a 9×9″ baking pan with the tahini sesame oil or other oil.
2. Mix the dry ingredients (semolina, flour, turmeric and baking powder) together in a large bowl.
3. Mix the wet ingredients (canola oil, milk and cane sugar) in another small bowl until the sugar is completely dissolved in the mixture.
4. Combine the dry and wet ingredients until batter is smooth and bright yellow. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and sprinkle the pine nuts all over.
5. Bake in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes until the pine nuts are golden.
6. Cool on a wire rack and cut into 16 squares or diamond shapes.

Notes

Storage: Store any leftovers in an airtight container. They will last about 7 days at room temperature or about 10 days in the fridge.Substitutes: For best results, follow the recipe as is. However here are some common substitutes that would work well in this recipe.

• For tahini, you can substitute oil or butter
• For the coarse semolina, you can also use fine semolina, but don’t use flour instead of semolina because it will not yield the right results
• For the pine nuts, you can use almonds. Silvered almonds work well and make sure they are raw since they will be getting roasted in the oven.

Sourcing: You can find some of the Middle-Eastern specific items like the semolina and tahini at Middle Eastern markets, natural-foods stores or even in large supermarkets, often located with other Middle Eastern ingredients.