Chebakia

This is a Moroccan sweet made out of flour, almonds and sesame seeds. The sweetener for this sweet is honey. Yes, it doesn't have sugar. But as my hubby is not a great fan of honey, he was not very happy with the sweet. But I liked it. Next time I will use the sugar syrup, which we use for Indian sweets, instead of honey. The shaping of the chebakia is very interesting. They have a mould for cutting out the shapes. But as those moulds are not available here, I used pastry cutter instead. As this is the first time I am tasting chebakia, I don't have any idea about how good it has come. But it was so nice with the juicy honey and crispy crust.

Ingredients:
Flour-250gm
Almonds-50gm (blanched and peeled)
Sesame seeds-50gm
Baking Powder-1/2tsp
Instant Yeast-1/2tsp
Salt-a pinch
Vinegar-1/2tsp
Olive Oil-1/4cup
Melted Butter-1/4cup
Cinnamon Powder-1/2tsp
Anise Powder-1/2tbs
Oil-For deep frying
Honey-400gm
Rose Essence-1/2tsp

Procedure:
1. Roast blanched, peeled and sliced almonds. Add the sesame seeds and roast till golden brown.
2. Grind it to a fine powder.
3. Add the almond mix, baking powder, salt, yeast, cinnamon, anise to flour and mix well.
4. Add vinegar, butter and olive oil and mix well.
5. Add enough water to prepare a soft dough.
6. Knead it for 10minutes.
7. Divide the dough into 6 balls.
8. While working with one portion, keep others covered.
9. Roll the dough into a thin square roughly measuring 15cm*15cm.
10. With the help of a pastry cutter trim the sides to make a square.
11. Cut the square into 4 equal squares.
12. In each square make 4 slits with the cutter leaving 1.2cm along the sides.
13. Shape chebakia as shown.
14. Heat oil. Fry the chebakias on medium high until golden brown.
15. Heat honey and add rose essence.
16. Dip the fried hot chebakias in warm honey and let it stay there for 2 minutes.
17. Remove from honey and arrange on a plate. Sprinkle some roasted sesame on top.
18. Allow it to cool thoroughly.
19. Serve and Enjoy.