Rose Water

This shortcut to cocktail orgeat is easy to pull off when you start with store-bought almond milk. 

This rose-scented kuih lapis is popular in the Malay community, served either as an evening snack or for breakfast and making an appearance at special events.

Chef Reem Assil's version of Ma'amoul Med Bil Ashta—a holiday cookie enjoyed for Eid, Christmas, and Easter—that's famous in Lebanon.

Mahalabiya is an easy, creamy milk custard that’s the ideal canvas for showcasing seasonal fruit.

These soft and chewy pancakes—inspired by atayef and Korean hotteok—are filled with nuts, sesame seeds, tahini, and grape molasses.

Kunafa is one of the most ubiquitous pastries across the Middle East and is such a simple dessert to make that it can be on the table in an hour.

This easy Egyptian bread pudding (called Om Ali or Umm Ali) is made with puff pastry, perfumed with rose water, and topped with an assortment of toasted nuts.

These date-filled cookies—qrass bil-tamr—are a typical Ramadan sweet, offered to guests and snacked on during the night before the fast begins again at dawn.

Maamoul are delicate pastries—filled with pistachios, walnuts, or dates—that are served on special occasions like Eid Al-Fitr and Easter.

Warbat is a popular snack during the month of Ramadan. The flaky pastry is drizzled with rose water syrup and sprinkled with vivid green crushed pistachios.

These delicate jam-filled bar cookies are made with dough that you freeze and then grate into the pan. They have a delightful light and crumbly texture.

These milky little doughnuts are a burnished bronze on the outside, white and cakey inside, and soaked to the core with delicately flavored rose syrup.

Using dates as the primary sweetener here means a lot less sugar in the ice cream, making it ideal for those who need to cut down on sugar but still want something sweet.

If you don’t rinse the rice, it will be gummy. If you don’t parboil the rice, it’ll be dry and tough when it comes out of the oven. If you don’t use yogurt, eggs, and oil, it will never get golden and crisp. Now you know!

Delicate rose water (a common ingredient in Middle Eastern sweets) and tart lemonade are a refreshing combination in this pretty pink drink.

This brittle recipe is a riff on an Iranian candy known as sohan. Its snappy texture and fragrant flavor pair well with bitter tea.

Almost any fresh fruit (pears, apples, berries) can replace the figs.

Pork loin is a lean, mild cut of meat. I like to add flavor and keep it moist by stuffing it with a mixture of chopped herbs and garlic. Simply make a small channel in the center of the loin with a knife, then poke the stuffing in. The meat will be flavored and basted from within while it roasts.

Rose water infuses this tender cake with an intoxicating aroma perfectly matched by sweet-tart spring rhubarb.