Easy Homemade Barazek (Bazraq) Cookies

Ingredients

• 1/2 kilo flour
• 250 grams ghee
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• a pinch ground mahleb
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tablespoons sugar syrup (qater or shira)
• a pinch vanilla
• crushed pistachios (Aleppo)
• Sesame mixture:
• 2 cups toasted sesame seeds
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon sugar syrup
• 1/2 tablespoon water
• For more Levantine sweets, here is Ward al-Sham: Rose of Damascus dessert

Method

1. Mix the flour, ghee, salt and mahleb well until you get a dough; cover it and let it rest for one hour in the fridge. In a saucepan, dissolve the sugar in half a cup of water with the syrup and vanilla.
2. After an hour, break up the dough slightly by hand, then add the sugar-and-water mixture and mix without kneading until you get a soft dough; cover again and let it rest for half an hour in the fridge.
3. After the time has passed, you will have a cohesive dough. Prepare a plate with crushed pistachios and mix the sesame mixture ingredients well and put them on another plate.
4. Start shaping the dough into small thin rounds. Dip each round on one side in the pistachios and on the other side in the sesame mixture, then arrange the barazek on a tray and put them into a slightly hot oven at 180°C on the middle rack until the bottoms are browned, then brown the tops; you will not need more than 10 minutes to bake them.
   Timers: 10 min
5. Wait until the barazek cool and serve.
6. Note: If the sesame does not stick easily to the dough, sprinkle it with a little water.