12 cups of good ghee

12 cups of sugar — and 9 cups for the stuffed ghraybeh

24 cups of Damascene or Australian flour in summer; in winter, reduce the quantity by one cup.

Half a tablespoon of ammonia — that is, powdered sal ammoniac — with a teaspoon of cognac. Beat the ghee in a vessel for half an hour until it becomes white as froth; after that, add to it half the quantity of sugar and rub well, then add the remaining sugar, the ammonia, and the cognac, and rub well again for a third of an hour. After that, add half the flour gradually and knead well, then add the rest of the flour and knead well again for three quarters of an hour, until the dough grows smooth and becomes firm like kmaj-bread dough; and leave it for an hour.

Finally, take the dough piece by piece, each the size of an egg; knead it, then draw it out a little into whatever shape you like, and bake it on the tray, each piece a qirat's distance from the next.

Useful hints:

1: You may pattern the ghraybeh with a carved mold.

2: Baking the ghraybeh needs no more than a quarter of an hour in a slow oven. The sign that it is done is that the ghraybeh rises and a trace of browning shows on it.

3: You may introduce into the ghraybeh dough whatever aro-matic essences you like the taste of, by mixing them well into the ghee — such as essence of vanilla or rosewater.

4: You may stuff the ghraybeh with almonds and sugar, and decorate the top with a split almond before baking.

Biscuits are made from local flour, or Australian, or American, or French, or from flour mixed with starch, or cornflour, or

arrowroot, or rice powder. In making biscuits, use a large board of wood for rolling out the dough and cutting it on; you will save time and ease the work. A small board forces you to repeat the work and to introduce more flour into the biscuits than is necessary, especially into the scraps of dough left after cutting.

It is preferable to put canned milk, sweetened or unsweetened, into biscuit dough. And it is preferable to use carbonate of ammonia rather than baking powder, for that makes the biscuits light.

Baking biscuits calls for attention and watchfulness, so that they do not burn, and so that they come out properly done — as they will not if they are not left in the oven long enough.

Use whatever stamp and pattern you wish on the face of the biscuits; you may also pattern the dough, after rolling it out, with the tines of a fork.

After making the biscuits, keep them in glass vessels with lids; they will stay in their good, fresh condition, delicious in taste and handsome to look at.

Two cups of bread flour.

Two cups of French flour.

Three teaspoons of baking powder, or

three teaspoons of carbonate of ammonia.

A cup and a half of sugar.

A cup of butter.

The grated rind of 1 lemon.

A teaspoon of essence of vanilla.

4 eggs, well beaten.

Mix and sift the flour with the baking powder, then add the sugar and stir it; then add the butter and rub well with the palms of the hands; then add the grated lemon rind, the essence, and the eggs, and knead the dough well for a quarter of an hour; then roll it out, cut it into assorted shapes, place them on the tray, and bake them.

Make the dough loose, so that when you test it, it is like a soft thread. Then put the starch in a tray and add enough water to it to make it loose; then add the starch to the dough and mix the two well together, and set the mixture aside until it ferments. Then pour it into a slender jug with a small spout like a pencil, and pour the dough, in whatever shape you like, into a wide frying pan with a suitable amount of heated oil, drawing latticed threads with the dough. During the frying, the zalabiya must be turned so that they cook on both sides; and as soon as they are done, lift them from the pan at once lest they burn, and dip them in warm syrup — and they are ready for serving.