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Qalb el Louz

Name: Qalb el Louz
Total time: 120 min
Yield: Serves 16
Cuisine: Algeria
Ingredients: 400g Semolina flour; 150g Sugar; 100g Butter; 3 tbsp Orange flower water; 150g Almonds; 1/2 tsp Cinnamon powder; 300g (for the syrup) Sugar; 3 tbsp Honey; 1 tsp Lemon juice

Dessert

⏱ 120 min

👥 Serves 16

Difficulty ⭐⭐

Baked semolina and almond cake soaked in orange-flower syrup — a sweet of Ramadan nights.

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📖 The Story Behind This Dish

Qalb el louz means 'heart of almond': a semolina cake with an almond paste layer in the middle, soaked after baking with orange-flower-water syrup, a traditional Algerian sweet. There's a custom of enjoying sweets on Ramadan nights, and pastry shops pile this cake high.

🌆 Where it's eaten: On a Ramadan night in an Algiers pastry shop, glistening cake on big trays is cut into squares, wrapped in paper, and handed over.

🥕 Ingredients (serves 16)

Semolina flour 400g
Sugar 150g
Butter 100g
Orange flower water 3 tbsp
Almonds 150g
Cinnamon powder 1/2 tsp
Sugar 300g (for the syrup)
Honey 3 tbsp
Lemon juice 1 tsp

👩‍🍳 Instructions

Mix the semolina, sugar, melted butter, 1 tbsp orange flower water, and 100ml water and rest overnight.
Crush the almonds finely and mix with the cinnamon and a little sugar and orange flower water.
Spread half the dough in a pan, spread the almonds over, top with the remaining dough, and press down.
Score into squares and place an almond in the center of each.
Bake at 180°C for 45 minutes.
Pour over a hot syrup made from the sugar, water, honey, lemon juice, and remaining orange flower water, and leave overnight to soak in.

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