Halawet el jibn is a sweet cheese dessert with a base made from mozzarella cheese, semolina and milk topped generously with homemade clotted cream fragranced with rose water. These literally dissolves in the mouth with a sweet, creamy and delicate smoothness.
Halawet el Jibn, this is without a doubt my all-time favorite dessert. The rolled version is a staple in my home, back in Dubai during Ramadan. There used to be an Arabic sweet shop named Damascus beneath my building In Dubai, it seems its closed now. They had such amazing knafe, kataif, baklava, halawat el jibn and many many other sweets. So we all had to get something from there for iftar. Without their sweets our iftar table would seem incomplete. Even after 11 years, one thing that I miss the most in Dubai is Damascus style halawat el jibn. Thankfully, I am fully satisfied with this recipe. It is almost 80% close to the original one.
Most of you are probably wondering what this dessert is. Halawet el jibn means ‘sweetness of cheese’. Just as the name implies, it is a dessert based on cheese. A dough is made of cheese, typically akawi and semolina. The cheese dough is rolled out and filled with a thick clotted cream. It is then usually rolled like a cigar, cut into small pieces, drizzled with a fragrant simple syrup and chopped pistachio. But I have used mozzarella cheese instead of the akkawi, as it is easily available everywhere.
The main part of this dessert is the Arabic CLOTTED CREAM/ ASHTA. The cream used in Arabic desserts are fantastic. But I usually substitute it with mascarpone cheese mostly, or sometimes thick cream. But this time, I made the ashta from scratch by curdling milk with vinegar. Then I mixed the milk solids I got with thick cream and sugar. Finally fragranced it with rose water, refrigerated it and the result was pretty impressive. It took the dessert to the next level. Hope you’ll try this recipe for Eid, its too good. I’m sure it will impress your guests.
Halawet El Jibn with homemade clotted cream
Ingredients
To make Ashta:
- 1 Litre milk
- 2 Tsp vinegar
- 250 Ml thick cream
- 1 Tsp sugar
- 1 Tsp rose water
To make the base:
- 1 Cup milk
- ½ Cup sugar
- ⅓ Cup fine semolina
- 200 Grams mozzarella cheese
- 1 Tsp rose water
- pistachios for garnish
To make simple syrup:
- 1 Cup sugar
- ½ Cup water
- 1 Tsp rose water
- 1 Tsp lemon juice
Instructions
To make simple syrup:
- In a pan, add sugar and water. Dissolve it on high heat.
- Once the sugar is melted, reduce heat to low and let it simmer for2-3 minutes.
- Turn off heat. Pour rose water and lemon juice.
To make clotted cream:
- In a pan, pour milk and let it come to a boil.
- Pour vinegar and mix well on low heat.
- The milk will curdle. Turn off the heat and strain it through a strainer.
- Add the solid milk into a bowl.
- Add sugar and rose water and mix.
- Mix thick cream with it. Cover it and refrigerate over night or for an hour.
To make the base:
- In a pan, pour milk. Add sugar and mix on high heat.
- Add semolina and let it get cooked well. The semolina will swell up.
- At this stage, reduce heat to lowest and add in mozzarella cheese.
- Mix well until the cheese melts completely.
- Pour rose water.
- Divide this into two plates and flatten it out.
- Spread a thick layer of ashta. Sprinkle powdered pistachios. Refrigerate for an hour more and serve with a good drizzle of simple syrup.
Notes
Recipe from Balqisweet