Mango Halawet-el-jibn

What is Halawet-el-jibn

Halawet-el-jibn is a classic Arabic dessert. The origin of this dessert is said to be Syria. It is very popular in other regions in the Middle East, including Lebanon and Turkey, and other countries around the world. It is made of a semolina and mozzarella cheese dough, filled with cream/cream cheese or even hung curd. A drizzle of syrup flavoured with orange blossom and rose water puts the final seal of perfection.

Mango Halawet -el-jibn

It’s one of my favourite desserts because not only it is very delicious to eat, it’s preparation is very easy and quick that with very little effort you can make it at home. As this is the mango season and my family is a great fan of mangoes, I decided to make this Arabic dessert more delightful by adding mango puree to the mozzarella dough. And the outcome was too satisfactory.

Recipe

Preparation time: 60 min
Cooking time: 15 min
Serves: 15-20 sweets
Difficulty level: medium

Ingredients

For sugar syrup

2 cup granulated Sugar
1/2 cup Water
1 tsp Lemon juice
3/4 tsp Rose water/Kewra water/Orange blossom water

For the cheese roll

2 cup Mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup Sugar
3/4 cup Milk
1 cup fine Semolina
1/2 cup Mango puree
1 teaspoon Rose water/Kewra water/Orange blossom water

For stuffing

200 g Hung curd / Cream cheese
2 tablespoon Cream
1 tablespoon powdered Sugar

For garnishing

2 tablespoon crushed Pistachios
As needed dry rose petals

Steps

For the sugar syrup, boil 1/2 cup water with 2 cups of sugar and lemon juice in a pan.

Simmer for 10 minutes. Add 3/4th teaspoon of kewra water/ rose water or orange blossom water.

Remove from heat, transfer to a bowl and keep aside to cool down. The syrup should be light in consistency.

For the stuffing, mix together 200g hung curd, 2 tablespoons of cream and 1 tablespoon of powdered sugar. You can simply use fresh cream or cream cheese or even soft homemade paneer/ ricotta cheese for the stuffing.

Mix well and transfer to a piping bag or a zip lock bag. Keep in the refrigerator.

Now in a heavy-bottomed pan add 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup mango puree and 3/4th cup milk.

Mix well and cook in low heat until the mixture comes to boil. Note that if you cook in high heat the mixture may curdle.

Add in 1 cup of fine semolina and stir vigorously. Keep flame at low.

When the mixture becomes soft and smooth add 2 cups of mozzarella cheese and mix thoroughly.

Add 1 teaspoon of kewra water or orange blossom water. Within a minute the mixture will become a soft dough. Remove from heat.

In a clean countertop spread some sugar syrup. Over this place the cheese dough.

Now sprinkle some more sugar syrup and roll the dough with a rolling pin to a thin rectangular shape sheet.

Take out the stuffing from the refrigerator and cut one edge of the zip log bag with a caesar through which stuffings will be piped.

Now pipe some stuffings prepared earlier and spread smoothly with a spoon along the edge of the long side of the sheet leaving a 1-inch gap.

Now roll the sheet over the stuffing so that the sheet completely covers the stuffing and seal the side by pressing nicely to form a long log.

Trim off the side from the rest of the sheet using a sharp knife.

Like this make more logs stuffed with the cream mixture repeating the previous step. Place them in a greased or lined tray.

Keep the tray or dish in the refrigerator for at least 1/2 an hour. This will make the sweets firm to handle.

After 1/2 an hour take out from the refrigerator and cut in small square or rectangular pieces. Sprinkle some crushed pistachios and dry rose petals on each sweet to garnish.

Delicious Mango-Halawet-el-jibn is ready to serve now. You can drizzle some sugar syrup before serving. These sweets are relatively healthy and not so rich to consume yet they are mouthwatering desserts.