Al Kile’ga is an old type of a traditional sweets in the Kingdome of Saudi Arabia, comes originally from Al Qassim region. This delicious sweet is stuffed with a mix of spices that gives it a rich flavor and unique taste, and it is a must have sweet on the Eid celebrations’ banquet.  

Ingredients:

• 3 cups brown flour
• 1 ½ cup water
• 1 cup white flour
• 1 cup butter

• ½ cup of powdered milk
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon yeast

Preparation Method:

• Sift the white flour and brown flour, add the vanilla and powdered milk, mix the ingredients well
• Put the amount of lukewarm water in a bowl, add the yeast and sugar, stir the ingredients until the sugar dissolves, then leave it aside for ten minutes until the yeast begins to react
• Add the butter to the liquid ingredients, and mix it well
• Form a hole in the flour mixture, add the yeast mixture and knead the ingredients together until you get a firm dough, cover the dough and leave it for an hour to rest
• To prepare the filling, add sugar, cardamom, cinnamon, lime and ginger powder, mix the ingredients together and set aside
• Form the dough into small balls and stuff it with the filling previously prepared, then close it and form a ball, place the stuffed ball in a desserts’ mold, if the mold is not available it can be engraved by hand or by pressing the ball slightly on a colander
• Grease a tray with vegetable oil, put the Kile’ga in the tray, bake in a preheated oven at 180 ° C for 20 minutes or until they acquire the golden color
• Serve it with tea or Arabic coffee

• 1 teaspoon ginger powder
• ¾ cup sugar

• 1 tablespoon cardamom powder
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon powder
• 1 tablespoon black lemon powder

Lougai’mat (or bites in English) is one of the most popular sweets in the UAE desserts menu. It’s a must have sweets in all of the national, traditional and religious occasions in the UAE, as it is a favourite sweet for UAE’s citizens and residents who loves these crunchy bites flavoured with cardamom and saffron.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon instant yeast
• ½ cup powder milk
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• ½ teaspoon cardamom powder
• Pinch of saffron

• Pinch pf salt
• Lukewarm water as needed, approximately 1/3 cup
• Oil for deep frying
• ½ cup date syrup or more for dressing
• 1 teaspoon sesame seeds to garnish

Preparation Method:

• Add all purpose flour, yeast, powder milk, sugar, cardamom powder and saffron in a bowl and mix well.
• Slowly add water while gently mixing with your hand to get a sticky batter.
• Cover with a cloth and allow to rest for a couple of hours in a warm place until it double in size
• Heat oil and drop the batter by spoonful in shape of small circlers. (Dipping the spoon in water in between will prevent the batter from sticking to the spoon and makes it easier to drop (alternatively you can drop the batter in a zip lock bag. Cut out the corner of the bag and push to get a small ball of the batter in your hand. Drop this ball immediately in oil. You can dip your hand in water to avoid sticking.
• Roll the dropped balls with a slotted spoon in oil. Fry till they are dark golden brown in color.
• Place the Lougai’mat in a serving bowl, and pour the date syrup and sprinkle the sesame seeds from the top.

Desserts making is one of the most well-known traditional crafts in the Sultanate of Oman, and the Omani Halwa is the most famous desserts among it. Halwa is a favorite dessert in most of the Gulf countries, due to its delicious and unique flavor. Many people think that preparing Omani Halwa at home is very difficult and complicated, but it’s the opposite way around, as you can prepare this delightful dessert easily at home by following few simple steps.  

Ingredients:

• 4 cups sugar
• 1 ½ cup corn starch
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• 1 small cup rose water

• 2 tea spoons cardamom powder
• Few saffron strands
• 1 ½ liter water
• Pistachio for garnish

Preparation Method:

• In a heavy saucepan, add the sugar, stir it consistently on medium heat until the sugar dissolve, became brown in colour and turned into caramel
• Add the oil while stirring the mixture
• Mix the corn starch with the water, add it to the caramel, with continuous stirring on low heat
• Keep stirring the caramel mixture to get rid of any lumps, until you reach to a smooth and rich mixture
• Add the saffron to rose water, then add this mixture to the caramel, while continuing stirring
• Add the cardamom powder, and keep stirring until you have a form consistency of the mixture
• Once your caramel mixture is consistence, take it off the heat, add it to a serving plate, garnish it with pistachio and serve it.

Gourss Agili, is a Kuwaiti style sponge cake, characterised with the strong flavours of cardamom, saffron, sesame, and rose water, served usually during traditional and religious occasions. it is one of the main dishes on Ramadan Iftar and Eid banquet in Kuwait. Agili cake can be made with many different methods and in different sizes and shapes, here we choose to highlight the Agili cake with saffron sauce.  

Ingredients:

• 1 ¼ cup multi-purpose white flour
• 6 eggs
• 1 cup of milk
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 cup sugar
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• ¾ cup milk

• 1 tablespoon ground cardamom
• 2 tablespoons of rose water
• ½ teaspoon ground saffron
• 1 teaspoon of liquid vanilla
• 2 tablespoons of roasted sesame
• 2 cups powdered sugar for the sauce

Preparation Method:

• Preheat oven to 180 ° C
• Prepare small muffin baking tray, or baking mold opened from the centre, grease with ghee and sprinkle with sesame
• Mix rose water and saffron with milk and set aside, until the milk becomes yellow
• Sift both flour, baking powder,
• a pinch of salt and ground cardamom together
• Beat the eggs and sugar together in a separate bowl for 5 minutes until the mixture doubles in size, and becomes a light yellow color
• Add the oil gradually to the egg mixture with continuous whisking
• Add half the amount of the milk mixture flavored with saffron to the liquid mixture. Add the liquid mixture gradually to the flour until you get a soft dough
• Pour the mixture into the pre-prepared mold or try
• put the mold in the oven. Leave it for about 45-50 minutes, until it’s golden in color
• Remove the mold from the oven, leave to cool down for about 10 minutes. Put the cake on a serving dish
• In the meantime, prepare the saffron sauce, by adding the remaining amount of milk flavored with saffron to the powder sugar gradually, until it forms a smooth and creamy sauce
• Pour the sauce over the cake, and set aside until the sauce is completely dry
• Serve the cake with tea or coffee

Omani kitchen is famous for its variety of traditional desserts, such as Omani Halwa, which is the most famous one among them, however still there is many other delicious Omani desserts that is vary than other types of the sweets known in the Gulf countries. One of these special Omani desserts is the Omani Rahash (Halva), which can be prepared simply at home, to enjoy it alone or to use it later in preparing other type of delicious desserts such as Omani Rahash cake.

Omani Rahash ingredients:

• An amount of liquid tahini
• ¾ cup powdered sugar, sifted
• 1 cup powdered milk
• Fresh, unsalted nuts for garnishing

To prepare the Rahash:

• Put the powdered sugar in a deep bowl, add powdered milk, and mix well together
• Add the liquid tahini gradually, one tablespoon at a time with continuous stirring, until a dough is formed
• Add nuts (as desired), to the dough and stir well to distribute
• Form the dough as desired
• Keep it in an airtight container, until serving
• To serve, decorate the Rahash with nuts and crushed pistachios

To prepare the Rahash cake:

• Sift the flour, salt and baking powder together, set the mixture aside
• Add the eggs to an electric mixer, mix it for a minute, add the sugar and mix again until the sugar is completely dissolved
• Add the pre-prepared Rahash, hot water, liquid vanilla, and whipping cream to the mixture, mix again until the ingredients are combined and forms a light-colored mixture
• pour the liquid ingredients mixture over the flour, stir all the ingredients together by an electric whisk until the flour disappears, making sure that there are no dry lumps in the mixture
• Grease a cake baking tray with butter, cover it with flour, then pour the cake mixture
• Bake the cake in a preheated oven, for about 25 minutes or until golden in colour
• Leave the cake to cool down
• Put the cake in a serving dish, and decorate it according to taste

• ½ tablespoon liquid vanilla
• 1 cup liquid whipping cream
• 1 cup hot water
• Pinch of salt

• 2 cups multi-purpose flour
• ¾ cup margarine or vegetable oil
• ¾ cup of sugar
• 1 cup of pre-prepared Rahash
• 2 teaspoons baking powder

Ingredients:

• 500 grams of toast bread (3/4 of a whole pack of white or brown bread) 
• 200 grams of butter
• Rose water (as per your preference) 
• Blossom water (as per your preference)
• Mastic (as per your preference) 

Sugar syrup ingredients

• 2 cups of sugar 
• ½  cup of water 
• Few drops of lemon juice 

• A medium size pack of shredded Mozzarella
• One can of fresh cream 
• ¾ cup of semolina 
• 1 & ½ cup  of fresh milk 
• Grounded pistachio  for decorating the dish 

Preparation method

• Put the bread in the mixer gradually till it become a bit soft 
• In a steal mould, distribute the bread and mix it with the butter and pat by hands on the mixture 
• In another pot, put the milk on a low heat till it gets hot, add the fresh cream and gently stir, 
• Add the semolina, ¼-teaspoon rose water, ¼ tea spoon blossom water and mix well until harmonized.
• Spread the Mozzarella cheese equally on the top of the bread layer 
• Add the milk and semolina mixture to the bread layer 
• Close it well with aluminum foil 
• Put it in the oven on 160 degrees for 30 – 40 minutes 
• When you take the mould out, open the foil, check the edges colours if they got reddish then take it out if the edges still light colour keep it in the oven for 10 more minutes 
• Leave the mould for a while till the heat decreases, then bring a circle shaped dish to flip the mold on it 
  

Ingredients:

• 2.5 cups grated carrots
• 2.5 cups dairy milk or almond milk
• 8 table spoons sugar
• 5-6 green cardamom pods, powdered or crushed
• 3 table spoons unsalted cashews

• 3 table spoons unsalted pistachios
• 2 table spoons raisins
• A pinch of saffron
• 2 table spoons oil

Preparation method

• Wash, peel, and grate the carrots
• In a sauce pan mix the milk with grated carrots, bring it to simmer
• Keep the mixture to simmer on low heat while stirring it from time to time for 15 – 20 minutes. Add cardamom
• When the mixture becomes thick add the oil, stir and continue to cook
• When the mixture is almost dried, add the dry fruits and nuts
• Stir and cook for further 2-3 minutes
• Serve carrots halwa cold or warm 

Ingredients:

• ¼ cup confectionery flour
• ¾ cup butter
• 2 table spoon rose water or orange blossom water

Stuffing ingredients

• 150gm. Clean, seedless dates
• 25gm. Walnuts, chopped
• 50gm. Almond, chopped
• 2 table spoon orange blossom water
• 1 tea spoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup vegetable oil

Preparation

• In a deep container add flour, butter and rose or orange blossom water. Mix it together until it forms a soft dough. Cover it, and then let it set for one hour
• In another container add dates, walnut, almonds, cinnamon and orange blossom water, and mix well
• Cut the dough into small pieces, stuff each piece with the date mixture, and form it into fingers shape
• Put the oil in a non-stick pan, heat it well then fry the dates finger until golden
• Drain the date fingers well to get rid of excess oil.
• Serve it warm with coffee.

Ingredients:

• 2 cup of flour
• ½ spoon salt. ½ spoon Vanilla Powder
• 1 tea spoon sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil

• 6 eggs
• 2 cups oil for frying
• Syrup

Preparation

• Put a heavy saucepan on medium heat, add oil, water, salt, and sugar, and until it boils.
• Pour all the flour mixture in one go and then stir it using a wooden spoon until it forms a ball. Turn the dough on a clean bowl and let it cool for 15 minutes.
• When the mixture forms the shape of a ball, and becomes unstuck, transfer it to another bowl. Let it cool and then mix in the eggs one at a time stirring well after each addition. Add the vanilla and stir again. 
• Fill the dough in a piping bag fitted with a nozzle with whatever shape you want. Alternatively, you can drop a small amount of batter into the oil using a teaspoon.
• Get the oil to frying point on medium heat, and then drop the batter gently in the oil. Fry for 3 minutes on each side until you reach a deep golden brown. Take it out of the oil and drain for 2-3 seconds, immediately dip the fritters in the cooled syrup for 1 minute only and then take them out. 
• Serve it in a white plate. Sprinkle ground sugar over it. Alternatively, you can stuff it with white or dark chocolate, cheese, cream, or nuts.

sago

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of sago grains
• 2 cups of sugar
• 4 to 6 cups of water
• 1 teaspoon of cardamom powder

• 1 teaspoon of saffron
• 3 tablespoons of ghee
• Water for soaking the sago

Preparation method

• Soak the sago in water.
• Melt the sugar in a pot and add a cup of water to avoid burning the sugar.
• Keep stirring until the sugar turns into light caramel.
• Add the remaining water (approximately 4 to 5 cups) to the caramel and keep stirring until it completely melts.
• Add the ghee, saffron and cardamom and leave the mixture to boil for a short period of time.
• Add the sago and keep stirring until the white grains turn transparent.
• When the sago is ready, pour it into a Douri (semi-deep plate)