A Guide to Classic Middle Eastern Sweets

Middle Eastern sweets, called halawiyat in Arabic, rest on a few beloved foundations: paper-thin phyllo dough, semolina, butter, nuts and fragrant syrup scented with rosewater or orange blossom. Once you know the basics, any pastry case becomes easy to read.

Baklava

Dozens of layers of buttered phyllo filled with pistachios, walnuts or cashews, baked until crisp and soaked in syrup. Look for many shapes: diamonds, squares, fingers (asabe), nests (esh el bulbul) and rolls. Good baklava shatters when you bite it and is sweet but never soggy.

Kunafa

Shredded kataifi dough or a fine semolina crust baked over melted sweet cheese or ashta cream, then drenched in syrup and topped with ground pistachio. Kunafa is best warm, when the cheese still stretches. Burma kunafa is a rolled, crunchy version filled with whole pistachios.

Ma'amoul

Hand-molded semolina shortbread filled with dates, walnuts or pistachios and pressed in carved wooden molds. Each filling traditionally gets its own shape so guests can tell them apart. Ma'amoul is the cookie of Eid, Easter and Purim tables in Syrian homes.

Basbousa and harissa

Basbousa is a moist semolina cake, often with coconut, cut in diamonds and soaked in syrup. Harissa (the sweet, not the chili paste) is its denser cousin, usually crowned with a blanched almond.

Qatayef

Small pancakes cooked on one side only, then folded around sweet cheese, ashta cream or spiced walnuts. Qatayef asafiri are left open and filled with cream and pistachio. They are a Ramadan favorite.

Halva, nougat and Turkish delight

Not every sweet is baked. Sesame halva, pistachio nougat, mann al-sama and rosewater lokum (Turkish delight) round out any mixed tray and keep well for gifting and shipping.

How to serve

Serve pastries at room temperature with Arabic coffee or mint tea. Store syrup pastries covered at room temperature for two to three days; cream-filled sweets go in the refrigerator. A mixed tray lets guests taste a little of everything.

Order

Browse our full halawiyat collection online, or call 646•462•8646 for a custom tray. We ship by UPS in the U.S. for $15 and worldwide with a shipping quote by phone.