Fekkas Msseoues - cookies with almonds and raisins.

Other

Soak the almonds in cold milk or water for at least 20 minutes. Drain and pat dry. Roughly chop them. Wash the raisins and soak them in the orange blossom water for 5 minutes.Sift the baking powder with the flour and set aside.

In a large bowl, mix eggs and sugar with a fork or whisk until foamy. Add all the other ingredients except baking powder and flour. Mix well.

Little by little, add the sifted flour with baking powder. If you need any more flour to bring it to a soft smooth dough add 1 tablespoon at a time. Flour absorption differs from one country to another.

Work the dough with your hands until a soft dough forms. You don't need to knead it.

Cut the dough into 4 and roll each one back and forth on a work surface to form a sort of fat sausage or roll of dough about 0.7"/2 cm high to 1"/2.5 cm and 2"/5 cm to 2.5"/ 6.5 cm base.  The length of the dough logs will depend on the baking sheet you will be using.

Carefully transfer each roll of dough to a baking sheet. Brush the logs with egg 

With a fork, draw straight lines or crossed lines in the egg-wash but not the dough itself. So try to have a light hand.

Preheat the oven to 338° F (170° C). Bake for about 15 -20 minutes. Since ovens and thickness are different, you should be looking for the following: the rolls need to form a light crust without really being completely baked. We just half-bake them. The texture inside should be a bit soft but already showing a crumbly but compact texture. The outside should be bit springy to the touch.

Let the baked logs cool a bit then cover them with a cloth. They need to rest overnight or at least 6 hours. (A faster option is to cover them with a damp cloth for about 1 hour before cutting them, but in our family we just follow the first option.)

With a sharp knife, carefully cut the fekkas into ½ cm thick slices. Cut them slightly diagonal. Be careful not to break them.

Place the slices on a baking sheet. If you have added raisins, you need to line your pan with baking paper. As the fekkas will not spread at this stage, you can arrange them touching each other; no need to keep space in between.

Bake in a 338° F (170° C) oven until golden brown, about 12-15 minutes. Turn off the oven and leave them inside.

Let them cool before removing them very carefully from the baking sheet.

Serve broken fekkas with milk for a nice morning breakfast. Let them soak for a couple of minutes and eat like cereal.

You can also use broken bits of fekkas as a crumble over fruit salads or tarts and over panna cotta or muhallabia.