How to Make Sekerpare

Now, it is time for desert. Today, we’ll be making Sekerpare which is sweet syrupy pieces. This is a delicious spongy cake soaked in a sweet syrup. For this, you will need two eggs, 2/3 cup of granulated sugar, 1/2 cup of semolina, 1/2 cup of corn oil, two cups of flour, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of baking powder and some hazelnuts.

So for starters, let’s start with our egg. Now, one egg you can crack but the other one when you crack it, I want you to sieve the yolk in a separate bowl. This is good for later on, for brushing the top of the Sekerpare with the egg yolk so it turns a nice golden brown. So, I'm just going to put my egg yolk right in there. We’ll save that for later. And then we’re going to take a whisk or hand mixer and whisk in our sugar. So, just put it in and now it’s time to whisk. I want to get it really nice and creamy. So now that you see that I have this mixture, now of course if you had a hand mixer, it would be easier but I'm used to the whisk and it does the job so it is just fine. You just have to whisk it in section by section. Now, I use the flour at the end but some people use the flour in the mixture. I'm going to show you how we’re going to use the flour later on.

So now, we’ll mix in our semolina. I'm just going to give it a really nice and again just keep whisking it. The point is to get the dough that you could maneuver around, that you could mold to a really nice shape circle. So, once you got all this whisked in, we’re going to put in our salt which is just a quarter of a teaspoon. So now, we’re going to put in a little flour and then our baking powder. And the reason I put in the flour first is because a trick I've learned is always putting the baking powder on top of the flour, spreads it around much more evenly so just whisk that together. Now, it’s time to start using the hands so just out in the flour and gather it up. See how it’s getting softer. Alright so once you’re done with all your flour and remember to keep eyeballing it. If you see you need more flour throughout, keep adding it. The point is you want get it to a dough, that’s easy enough to maneuver and roll into the little bowl shapes that we’re going to use for our shake hand party.

So now, our dough looks good enough that we could start molding it into shape. We could take it and just play with it. And this is how it is supposed to be so just keep adding flour until you get this soft texture easy to mold. So, what you are going to do then is just roll it between your hands, about the size of walnut that’s what I like to say. And then you could take it. Put it upside down and place it on your tray. Now, don’t put this too close together because they’re going to rise when they cook and you don’t want them to stick close together. So, not too far apart but not right next to each other either. So, just roll and then you could just place it upside down like so. So, see how I give it ample space. That’s good enough. Now, this may make two trays. That’s okay. Just keep rolling them until all your dough is done. Then you could see how almost done that there’s still a lot of butter left. So, you can just use your judgment. This is great when people are coming over. You can make it in the morning and it got really nice and syrupy by the evening. Perfect time to give to your guests.

Now, once it’s all done, we’re going to take our hazelnuts. Remember, you can use almonds as well. And take them with a point pointing downward. Go in the middle and just poke a hole. Now, you need to poke it pretty good otherwise, they will pop out when you are cooking. So, that’s what we have to do. And also, we are going to take that egg yolk that we had from before and brush it over our cookies. That also keeps the hazelnuts from popping out. Now, you don’t have to poke the bottom of the tray. Just make sure you poke it far enough so that it goes through. And as you could see it is already taking shape of what the Sekerpare is supposed to look like. And this is a good time to make sure your over in preheating to 350 degrees. And this takes really fast to bake. It’s like 20 minutes but of course you have to keep checking. You want a nice golden brown color.

Now, it is time to take our egg yolk and our brush. I'm just going to just brush it over. This way when they cook, they get a nice golden brown color. And I'm going to put in, in our oven and bake it. Remember to keep eyeballing it. Make sure that it doesn’t get too brown or doesn’t cook too fast because that way it will burn and the inside won’t cook.

So, once you put your Sekerpare in the oven, it is time to make your syrup. This is a very delicious and easy syrup. It goes with many different types of Turkish desserts. What we’re going to use right now is a cup and a half of water, a cup and half of sugar and just a splash of lemon juice. You don’t want it to be too sour. Just mix this altogether, bring it to a boil then let it simmer for five minutes and then your syrup is done. So now that you see that it’s come to a rolling boil, we need to turn it off and just let it settle for a minute while I get our Sekerpare out of the oven. Look at this gorgeous golden brown color. This is your goal. This is exactly what you want to achieve. Not too gold, not too light, just a perfect shiny gold and it is warm so it’s going to absorb our syrup really nicely. So, we’re just going to spoon it over like we do with all of our other desserts. Now, this is the same way you spoon over say if you were making a baklava or a revani, many of the syrupy desserts.

Now that we’ve waited for it to cool, it’s time to serve our delicious Sekerpare. This is the best part, eating. Okay. Now, this is best served at room temperature. You don’t need to put on the fridge and know that throughout time that it’s going to get soggier and soggier but that is the best part when it crumples in your mouth. But now it’s time to taste. It’s delicious. You’re going to love it.