Since Easter is this weekend, I thought I’d make a dessert to take with me to our family get-together. Initially, I thought I’d tackle one of my favorite cookies – Ghraybeh. Ghraybeh, or “S” cookies, are kin to shortbread cookies, only more buttery and soft. If done right, they melt in your mouth and sing in your stomach and they are one of my most favorite things ever. They aren’t difficult to make, but there was another cookie I wanted to try out – one that seemed more festive.
I don’t know what the Arabic word is for these cookies, but my cousins call them ‘rock cookies’. They are delicious mounds of cookie goodness and every mama, aunt, cousin I know that makes them has a different twist to them. Here’s my mama’s version:
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 cup butter
4 cups flour
1/2 cup white corn syrup
1 1/2 cups walnuts
2 cups golden raisins
tsp. baking soda
tsp. cloves
tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. allspice
1 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
dash of salt
Mix flour and spices together. Mix butter and sugar together. Add egg one at a time to the butter/sugar mixture and then add syrup. Slowly add the flour to the mixture until it’s cookie-dough in consistency. Stir in chopped walnuts and raisins. Bake at 375 until golden brown.
They should come out like misshapen lumps that have a more on the crunchy,crumbly texture vs. soft and chewy.
Zayt and Zaatar 