Halawet el Jibn — Syria

Halawet el jibn is a dessert whose name means cheese sweet, reported from central Syria and found across the Levant and the wider Middle East, notably in Tripoli, Lebanon. Syrian emigrants have also carried it to communities in Turkey and Germany, among other countries. It belongs to a small family of milk and semolina sweets built around a cooked dough rather than a batter, and stands out for using a soft, mild cheese as its main structural ingredient instead of nuts or dried fruit. Qishta, a thick clotted cream, provides the filling that gives the dessert its softness. To prepare it, semolina is cooked with sugar syrup, water and a mild, stretchy cheese such as akkawi or a similar unsalted cheese until the mixture pulls together into a smooth, elastic dough, often scented with a little rosewater or orange blossom water. While still warm and pliable, the dough is rolled out thin, cut into rectangles, spread with qishta and rolled into short logs. What distinguishes this version from other milk-based sweets of the same family is the cheese dough itself, worked while hot like a sugar paste rather than baked, and the qishta filling kept deliberately plain so the rolled logs can be finished with a light syrup and crushed pistachios at the end. Serving them soon after rolling, while the dough is still soft, is reported as important to the texture.