SEKERPARE - COOKIE THAT MELTS IN YOUR MOUTH

Şekerpare is one of the most popular desserts in the Turkish cuisine, also very popular in Macedonia. You can buy serekpare in old bazaars mostly in the pastry shops owned by Turkish people. Mainly it is prepared by baking soft balls of flour and semolina dough, decorated with almond or hazelnut in the middle and then dipped in thick lemon-flavored sugar syrup. Sekerpare means sugar (seker) piece (pare).

 

Ingredients:

For its dough

  • 2 eggs
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/2 cup semolina
  • 1/2 cups sugar
  • 125 g butter left at room temperature (1 stick)
  • 1 sachet baking powder (10 g)
  • hazelnuts or almonds

For the syrup

  • 4 cups sugar
  • 5 cups water
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice

Instructions:

  1. First prepare the syrup. Boil water and sugar for about 15 minutes and add the lemon juice at the end and leave to cool.
  2. Combine the eggs, butter, flour, semolina, sugar and baking powder and knead well.
  3. Make balls with a size of a walnut and flat them a bit.
  4. Align on an oiled pan and add hazelnut or almond in the center of each pressing gently.
  5. Put to bake in a preheated oven at 180 C (356 F) degrees. Bake about 25 minutes until they got a beautiful golden color.
  6. Pour the syrup while the cookies are still hot. You can pour it with a ladle on each piece. Wait until the cookies absorb the syrup water.

Note: If your dough is too dry and falls apart, add oil. The dough is ready when you can form a small ball with a walnut size. Don't expect the dough to become smooth.