Sekerpare is a much loved Turkish dessert. These are basically semolina based moist cookies with light sugar syrup. The literal meaning of Sekerpare is “a bit of sugar” in Turkish. The sugar syrup is generally flavoured with lemon juice or orange blossom.

But these semolina cookies are delicious and flavourful without adding sugar syrup also. I made these yummy cookies with a light flavour of cardamom and vanilla.I skipped the sugar syrup as I wanted to make the cookies less sweet. They are still so delicious and you can have them anytime with a cup of tea or coffee.

Recipe

• Preparation time: 30 min
• Baking time: 25 min
• Serves: 18 cookies
• Difficulty level: easy

Ingredients

• 1+1/2 cup All purpose flour
• 3/4th cup fine Semolina
• 2 Eggs
• 1/4h cup unsalted Butter
• 1/4th cup Vegetable oil
• 2/3rd cup Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Baking powder
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla essence
• 1/4th teaspoon Cardamom powder
• 1 pinch Salt

For toppings

• 1 Egg yolk
• 1 tablespoon Milk
• Crushed Pistachios as required

Procedure

In a big mixing bowl, add in 1/4th cup of soft butter,1/4th cup of vegetable oil,2 eggs,2/3rd cup sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla essence.

With an electrical hand mixture blend well to make a creamy mixture.

Now add in 3/4th cup of fine semolina/rawa, 1 teaspoon baking powder and a pinch of salt. Mix well. Also, add in cardamom powder or any flavour of your choice.

Now add in flour/maida in batches to make a cookie dough. The dough should not be too hard or too soft. Adjust flour accordingly.

Cover and keep aside for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven at 180 degree C for 10 minutes.

Line a baking tray with baking paper.

Take big lemon size portion of the dough, roll it between your palms to make an oval shaped cookie.

With your fingertips, give a nice pointed shape on both edges as shown in the picture.

Place it in the lined baking tray. Make all the cookies like this and place in the tray. Don’t forget to give about 2 inch gap between each cookie, as they will expand while baking.

Make a slurry with 1 egg yolk and 1 tablespoon of milk.

Brush each cookie with the prepared slurry. This will give a nice colour to the cookies.

Now with a sharp knife, give 3-4 slit s to each cookie to make a design.

Cookies are ready now to go to oven for baking.

Bake them in preheated oven at 180 degree C for about 25 minutes or until the top of the cookies become golden brown.

Keep the tray aside for few minutes to cool down and then sprinkle some crushed pistachios to each cookies.

When the cookies become completely cool, serve with tea or turkish coffee. You can easily store them in airtight container for a week.

Note

You can serve these cookies in dessert form by drizzling some light sugar syrup over the cookies when they are still warm. I enjoyed these cookies as tea time snack and hence avoided using sugar syrup.