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SOUMAYA'S LOUZINA

Captured by The Recipe Hunters In Lebanon

Louzina Recipe, Tripoli, Lebanon

Louzina is an old Lebanese almond cookie shaped like the crescent moon which is traditionally made during the period of Ramadan. Soumaya, the owner of BreadBasketSquarere in Tripoli, Lebanon, designed the recipe to make it more healthy, using local organic spelt flour and organic sugar in the raw. The cookie dough is made of sugar, salt, cinnamon, spelt flour, rose water, and milled cashews. The coating of the cookies is made of ground almonds. Biting into one of these cookies feels like taking a bite out of Lebanon. They are one of our favorite sweet recipes!

 

Serves: 12-15

Prep time: 15 min. + 20 min. (letting the the cookies rest before baking)

Bake time: 15 min. 

 

Kitchen Tips & Tricks:

  • If you are using a food processor to mill the almonds, make sure you do not over process the because you want the almond coating of the cookies to be chunky.

  • On the contrary, for the cashews, make sure that you process the cashews into a flour like consistency.

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 kg cashews (6 cups raw cashews)

 

  • 400 g (1.75 cups) sugar in the raw

 

  • 200 g (1.25 cups) of spelt flour 

 

  • pinch of salt

 

  • pinch of cinnamon

 

  • 85 ml of rose water

 

  • 350 g of almonds (2.5 cups)

Cookie Heart, Louzina Cookie Recipe, Lebanese cookie recipe

LOUZINA RECIPE

1. Grind the cashews into flour and using your hands, mix the cashews, sugar, spelt flour, cinnamon and salt together. After the ingredients are evenly dispersed add the rose water and continue to mix with your hands. The dough should form with the adding of the rose water and should easily form into a ball. Knead the ball until the ingredients are thoroughly mixed. At this point, cover the cookie dough with a damp towel and let it rest.

Mixing ingredients, Soumaya's Louzina, Lebanese cookie recipe

2. Shaping the cookies and coating them in crunchy almond flour.


Process the almonds in a food processor or mash with a mortar and pestle to form a crunchy almond flour.  Tear off a golf-ball size portion of the cookie dough and roll it into an elongated ball. Grab a handful of almond flour in one hand and place the cookie dough ball on top of the almond flour. Now using your thumb press down into the ball smashing it into the almond flour. Close that same hand with the ball of cookie dough in it so that the ball forms into a crescent shape and at the same time becomes coated in almond flour. Grab some more almond flour with the other hand and generously sprinkle it over the cookie. Pass the cookie back and forth between both hands as you form it's shape and cake it in almond flour. Repeat until all of the cookies are crescent shaped and almond coated.

Cookie dough, Soumaya's Louzina, Lebanese cookie recipe
cookie dough ball, Soumaya's Louzina, Lebanese cookie recipe
adding almond flour to cookie dough ball, Soumaya's Louzina, Lebanese cookie recipe
forming cookies, Soumaya's Louzina, Lebanese cookie recipe
caking the cookies in almond flour, Soumaya's Louzina, Lebanese cookie recipe
Forming cookie in hand, Soumaya's Louzina, Lebanese cookie recipe

3. Baking the Cookies

Place the cookies an inch apart on a baking sheet and cook on low or at 250° C (480° F) for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, rotate the tray. After another 5 minutes, flip the cookies and let them cook for an additional 5 minutes. In total the cookies will be baking at a high temperature for 15 minutes. Let cool for 10-15 min before enjoying!

Baking louzina cookies, Soumaya's Louzina, Lebanese cookie recipe
Flipping the pan, Soumaya's Louzina, Lebanese cookie recipe
Soumaya's Louzina, Lebanese cookie recipe

Written by The Recipe Hunters: Anthony Morano and Leila Elamine

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