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
- Preheat the oven to 375ÂşF and grease a 9×9″ baking pan with the tahini sesame oil or other oil.
- Mix the dry ingredients (semolina, flour, turmeric and baking powder) together in a large bowl.
- Mix the wet ingredients (canola oil, milk and cane sugar) in another small bowl until the sugar is completely dissolved in the mixture.
- 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.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes until the pine nuts are golden.
- 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.
Elevating Balance 