Baked aish el saraya with cream
This classic dish turns humble ingredients like bread, butter, and milk into a deliciously tender dessert. In an aish el saraya dessert, white toast is moistened and flavoured first with melted butter and then with a thick milk mixture with sugar, semolina, and ground cardamom.
The result is a flavourful, tender bread base perfect for topping with rich cream allowed to broil in the oven. The finished dessert is, as is standard for many delicious Middle Eastern desserts, drenched with simple syrup to ensure it is moist and sweet. It may be served with homemade syrup on the side allowing family and guests to adjust the level of sweetness individually.
Sweet, soft, and creamy layers with crunchy pistachios on top
The best aish el saraya recipe allows you to make a dessert that will delight anyone lucky enough to get a taste of it. The flavour profile of the bread base is quite multi-faceted. It is rich, milky, and buttery but is brightened by the powerful flavours of semolina, ground cardamom, and rosewater that imbue it with nutty, citrussy, and floral qualities. The aromatic nature of this combination is a true Middle Eastern classic.
The contrasts between the spiced and sweetened bread, the unsweetened but naturally rich and velvety cream, and the crunchy and nutty pistachios are amazing. For more tasty desserts featuring pistachios and cream, check out our recipes for qatayef, balah al sham, and mafroukeh.
Traditional sweet dessert for Ramadan
Though it may also be served as an even quicker no-bake dessert, baking your aish el saraya deepens its flavours and gives it a different look as the cream turns a lovely golden colour. As it bakes, the aromatic ingredients used to flavour the bread are allowed to develop and grow. The sugar in the base melts and gives the dessert an almost caramelised and toffee-like taste that makes the sweetness of it quite complex and interesting.
Add your own touch
An easy way to make this recipe your own is to experiment with crunchy toppings. For a bright addition that will freshen the rich and somewhat heavy dish, try using pomegranate seeds. These ruby-red, jewel-like seeds will look beautiful with the green pistachios and burst with flavourful juice as you bite into them. Their sweet-sour flavour will offset the buttery, creamy goodness of a baked aish el saraya.
Another way to mix things up with your aish el saraya recipe is to add other or additional spices to the sweetened milk used to flavour the toast. Tasty options, that will also taste great with the traditional cardamom, include sweet-spicy cinnamon and aromatic allspice. The milk may, of course, also be flavoured with other aromatics like floral orange blossom water or sweet, warming vanilla instead of rosewater.
