Sfouf
A Lebanese tea cake of vivid yellow that owes its colour to turmeric, not eggs — there are no eggs here at all, and no butter either. Made with plant milk instead of cow's milk it is fully vegan, with no other changes. The other characteristic detail: the tin is greased with tahini instead of fat, which gives the base a sesame aroma and stops the cake sticking.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Dry ingredients 10 min
- Batter 10 min
- Baking 35 min
- Cooling 20 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneWhisk the dry ingredients with the turmeric
Whisk the semolina, flour, sugar, turmeric, baking powder, salt and anise until the colour is uniform. Turmeric clumps readily, and every clump leaves a bitter, intensely yellow spot in the baked cake.
Ingredients: 250 g semolina · 150 g plain flour · 250 g sugar · 1 tbsp turmeric · 2 tsp baking powder · ½ tsp salt · 1 tsp anise
Whisk to an even colour — turmeric clumps taste bitter.Grease the tin with tahini and sesame
Grease a tin of about 24 × 30 cm with tahini instead of butter and scatter with sesame seeds. Tahini does more than prevent sticking — it gives the base a toasted sesame flavour that is part of this cake.
Ingredients: 2 tbsp tahini · 2 tbsp sesame seeds · 40 pcs almonds
Tahini instead of fat — a sesame base.Combine wet and dry without beating
Pour in the milk, oil and orange blossom water and stir only until combined, a dozen strokes. Overmixing develops the gluten in the flour, and sfouf, which should be short and slightly sandy, turns rubbery.
Ingredients: 350 ml milk · 150 ml oil · 1 tbsp orange blossom water
Pour in and set the almonds
Pour the batter into the tin, level it and arrange the almonds in a regular grid, so each diamond ends up with one in the centre. Not merely decorative — the almonds mark the cutting lines.
Ingredients: 2 tbsp tahini · 2 tbsp sesame seeds · 40 pcs almonds
A regular grid — one almond per diamond.Bake 35 minutes
Bake 35 minutes at 180°C, until the edges pull away from the tin and a skewer comes out clean. Semolina needs the full time — underbaked, sfouf is gritty and unpleasantly damp inside.
Ingredients: 250 g semolina · 150 g plain flour · 250 g sugar · 1 tbsp turmeric · 2 tsp baking powder · ½ tsp salt · 1 tsp anise
Cool in the tin and cut into diamonds
Cool in the tin for at least 20 minutes, ideally until completely cold, then cut into diamonds along the lines the almonds mark. Hot sfouf crumbles as you cut, because with no eggs nothing holds it together until it has cooled.
Ingredients: 250 g semolina · 150 g plain flour · 250 g sugar · 1 tbsp turmeric · 2 tsp baking powder · ½ tsp salt · 1 tsp anise
Before you start
Turmeric is not only colour
A tablespoon gives a clear, faintly earthy flavour that is intentional here. If you like it stronger, go up to a tablespoon and a half, but no further — more turns the cake bitter, and the colour does not get any deeper.
Vegan without changes
Simply swap the cow's milk for a plant milk (soy or oat) — the rest of the recipe is vegan from the outset. In Lebanon it is also baked during fasts, in exactly this version without cow's milk.
Five days in a tin
Made with oil rather than butter, sfouf is slow to go stale: in an airtight box at room temperature it keeps up to five days. It also freezes well in pieces.
