If you aren’t familiar with Egyptian cooking, you might be wondering what kinds of desserts they have. Whether you have any Egyptian heritage or not, this beautiful and ancient country has a lot to offer.
A number of popular Egyptian dessert recipes aren’t known much in places like the US and UK, which is a real shame! There are so many incredible desserts that the world is missing out on, and it’s our job to fix that.
Because we’re passionate about all things food, we felt it was only right to make a list of all the delicious and mother watering desserts that you need to try.
Now, this isn’t a full list of Egyptian desserts by any means, so feel free to do your own research and find out about even more!
If you are from Egypt and know about some desserts that we don’t mention on this list, why not tell us about it in the comments?
1. Revani Cake
This classic cake can be found throughout the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern regions.
It’s a delightfully soft and squishy cake that can be infused with anything you like, then poured with light maple syrup. It’s sweet, light, and a real treat for any time of year.
2. Coconut Cake – Bassima
Bassima cake is a type of coconut cake with so many incredible flavors. It’s made using lots of simple ingredients, like desiccated coconut, cream, yogurt, eggs, and sugar.
The sugar syrup that gets poured over the cake has a beautiful hint of rose water and condensed milk, making it light, sweet, and a lovely summer dessert.
3. Egyptian Choux Pastry – Balah El Sham
Also called tulumba, this Egyptian choux pastry is another dish that gets soaked with some dreamy simple syrup to sweeten it up. These are like Egypt’s own version of churros, and they are absolutely worth trying out.
4. Rice Pudding – Roz Belaban
This simple dessert should ideally be made with fresh buffalo milk to get the authentic experience.
You only need a few simple ingredients like short grain rice, whole milk, sugar, cornstarch heavy cream, vanilla, and ground mastic to create this mouthwatering dessert!
5. Cassata – Colorful Ice Cream Cake
Although this cake is originally from Italy, it has become a staple in Egypt and many other nearby countries. This colorful ice cream cake is a work of art, and almost looks too good to be eaten.
6. Luqmat al-Qadi – Lokma
These fritters originated from Iraq, but the recipe is now popular in many countries around the world. It is essentially made up of fried dough, which is then dipped in honey and sometimes even sprinkled with cinnamon for some extra flavor.
7. Egyptian Bread Pudding – Om Ali
This incredibly Egyptian bread pudding will knock your socks off, even though it’s so simple. Also called Om Ali, all you need for this recipe are palmiers, milk, sugar, and fresh clotted cream.
You can top it off with shredded coconut, raisins, pistachios, and hazelnuts to make something trust special.
8. Ashta Cream
Ashta cream is a popular and incredibly tasty Middle Eastern dessert. It’s decadent, simple, and can be paired with a variety of other desserts! The orange blossom flavor is exquisite and mild, making this a beautiful addition to any sweet treat.
9. Basbousa
This delicious dessert is a type of cake that gets soaked in simple syrup and decorated with nuts. It’s made of Farina, ghee, yogurt, tahini, and a few other simple baking ingredients.
The syrup is a combination of vanilla, honey, lemon juice, sugar, and water, and creates a balanced and tasty dessert loved by everyone.
10. Sesame Seed And Cashew Bars – Halawet el Moulid
Halawet el Moulid, or sesame seed and cashew bars, are simple, tasty, and perfectly chewy desserts popular in Egypt. This dish is sweetened with honey and sugar to make the perfect sweet snack.
11. Meshabek/Jalebi
Although jalebi is a traditionally Indian dessert, it’s also incredibly popular in Egypt, and is easy to make! It’s made with chickpea flour, cardamom, yogurt, ghee, and a few other common baking ingredients.
12. Egyptian Milk Pudding – Mahalabia
This decadent milk pudding is made with milk, heavy cream, sugar, vanilla sugar, cornstarch, and cinnamon. It’s light, but packed full of unbelievable flavor.
13. Harissa Dessert
Harissa is an umbrella term that is used to refer to a wide variety of semolina cakes.
This particular recipe is a foolproof option, and is sweet, decadent, and so easy to make. The stuffing is made up of honey, raisins, nuts, salmonella, and shredded coconut to give you an unforgettable dessert.
14. Sweet Bread Rolls – Shoreek
These sweet bread rolls are fluffy, soft, and deliciously sweet. What makes these even better is that they are so easy to make, and can be enjoyed at different times of day.
This dish is a popular snack among children, who often have it with a glass of warm milk.
15. Sweet Couscous
Couscous is usually a savory dish, but then so is rice! This sweet couscous recipe is easy to make, and the couscous is only sweetened by some powdered sugar, and garnished with coconut flakes. Honey could be used instead if you want a richer flavor.
16. Dried Fruit Compote – Khoshaf
Khoshaf is a simple and tasty fried fruit compote popular throughout Egypt. It’s made of dates, dried apricots, prunes, figs, dried apricot juice, nuts, and water! The results are a super sweet treat to enjoy whenever you like – delightful!
17. Egyptian Feteer Meshaltet
Feteer is essentially very thin pastry or dough with ghee between the layers. It can be served with various kinds of sweet and savory dips.
Some of the most popular sweet dips include molasses, honey, and chocolate syrups. It’s also often served with cheese, so anything goes!
18. Kunafa
Kanufa is a beautiful and delicious dessert popular throughout the Middle East. If you’ve been on social media, you’ve probably seen a video or two of these! It’s iconic, and made with a creamy filling, Kataifi, and soaked in devilishly sweet condensed milk.
19. She’reya bil Haleeb – Vermicelli in Milk
This recipe is similar to rice pudding, but calls for vermicelli instead! It’s simple and super quick to make, and only requires butter, vermicelli noodles, sugar, milk, cinnamon, and pistachios!
20. Egyptian Ghorayebah – Butter Cookies
These buttery cookies are incredibly popular in Egypt, and for good reason! With a few simple ingredients like ghee, powdered sugar, baking powder, flour, and almonds, you can have these cookies ready in no time. Simple and sweet – just how we like it.
21. Baklava
Baklava is one of those desserts that have become popular all around the world. It can be sickly sweet, or more mild.
Generally, these desserts are sweetened with honey, and topped with pistachios. You can make this dessert using phyllo dough and a few other simple and accessible ingredients.
22. Sweet Pumpkin Casserole
This surprising dessert is unbelievable, and definitely worth making if you love pumpkin. It’s made using a sweet béchamel sauce, and even includes tasty nuts and raisins in the filling to turn it into a mouthwatering dessert.
The vanilla and cinnamon only add to the dessert feel, even though you may not be used to a sweet casserole!
23. Kahk (Eid Cookies) with Pistachios and Honey
These simple Eid cookies are stuffed with honey and pistachios to pack in the flavor and fun. After they have been powdered with a healthy helping of confectioner’s sugar, you can sit back, relax, and enjoy them,
24. Egyptian Palace Bread
This palace bread recipe is a beautifully sweet dish. It tastes a lot like bread pudding, and can be made by simply removing the crust from a roll of bread and soaking it in honey.
Once soaked for half an hour, the bread can be stacked and baked for 45 minutes – that’s all there is to it!
25. Sweet Cheese Rolls –Halawet El Jian
These adorable desserts are made from sweet cheese dough, and are stuffed with clotted cream. On top, you will typically find crushed pistachios and rose petals, making this one of the most beautiful desserts you could hope for.
26. Halawa – Tahini Halva
Halawa, also called Halva, is a dense and deliciously sweet dessert with a nut base.
There are many variations of this decadent dessert, and it’s often even enjoyed as a sweet breakfast! To make this, you need tahini paste, walnuts, vanilla, sugar, milk, and oil. It’s something that everyone will appreciate.
27. Qatayef
Qatayef are stuffed pancakes that are fried until crispy, and dipped in simple syrup. They are popular dessert options during Ramadan, and are so incredibly tasty. The nut mixture inside is full of flavor and is the ultimate sweet snack.
28. Nut Cake – Hegazeya
This Egyptian nut cake, or hegazeya, is a simple and tasty treat popular throughout the Middle East.
It’s made using yeast, butter, sugar, chopped nuts, cinnamon, molasses, water, flour, and egg! The molasses is poured over the finished product to make a super sweet dessert for all.
29. Al Medalaa
Finding this one was tricky! Al Medalaa roughly translates to spoiled girl, and it’s made up of one layer of konafa, one layer of basbosa, and a deliciously thick and creamy layer between the two.
It’s typically topped off with chocolate sauce, and is the most popular dessert in Tanta!
30. Egyptian Fritters – Zalabya/Logmet al Kady
These super easy fritters are simple fried dough balls that get covered in their honey, Nutella, or powdered sugar! They are so quick and easy to make, but will always be a welcome treat for those who love sweet things.
Final Thoughts
There you have it! These mouthwatering Egyptian desserts are good enough to drool over, and definitely worth making. From the mild flavors you can enjoy in rice puddings to the sweet baklava and basbousa, these desserts are something special.
So, if you ever find yourself with all the right ingredients, you should take the time to make one or two of these stunning creations. Who knows? You might just find your new favorite dessert!
Frequently Asked Questions
Basbousa is the most popular dessert in Egypt. This simple dessert is made of semolina, ghee, sugar, and milk, and is a popular dessert choice for Ramadan. It’s easy to make, and a real treat if you would like to try something different to the usual.
Om Ali is Egypt’s national dessert. This dessert also goes by Umm Ali and Oumm Ali, which means “Mother of Ali”. There are lots of variations of this dessert, but they are all super tasty and relatively easy to make!
Yes! Baklava is one of the most important desserts in Egypt, as it’s a popular dessert for Ramadan. This dessert is made from thin sheets of goulash dough (filo in the Mediterranean countries).
There are often fillings such as pistachios or walnuts, as well as honey. It’s delicious, and can often be bought in stores around the world.
The pharaohs of Ancient Egypt enjoyed desserts such as fried pastries, sweet bread, sweetmeats, and honey cakes. They didn’t use sugar in those times, and instead sweetened their dishes by using honey and dates.
Yes! There are lots of different types of cookies that are made in Egypt. Some of these are quite similar to traditional American cookies, but they may have a few subtle differences in flavor and cooking method.
While a lot of Egyptian recipes use sugar nowadays, the traditional method of sweetening dishes was the use of honey and dates. These give dishes a very different flavor overall.
Generally, the dishes that use dates or honey as the sweetener are much richer, and in many ways, superior.
30 Delicious And Mouth Watering Egyptian Desserts
Want to learn about some incredible Egyptian desserts? Check out our favorite 30 delicious and mouthwatering Egyptian desserts you need to try out today!
Ingredients
Directions
- Pick a recipe from the list above
- Click the recipe name and visit the website
- Collect the ingredients and cook the food
- Enjoy – don’t forget to leave a review
Cooking is great for your mental, physical, and emotional health. What’s the worst that could happen? Find a recipe that you like the sound of and cook it along with me. You might even unlock a new passion!
- 15 Traditional Greek Breads - July 31, 2023
- 30 Delicious And Gluten-Free Cookie Recipes - July 29, 2023
- 30 Of The Best European Desserts - July 29, 2023