Thin and crispy shortbread cookies with pistachios pressed into the bottom and coated with sesame seeds and honey on the top.

I’ve never had barazek before, and I never will because of my sesame allergy. I suppose I could make them without sesame seeds, but then would they truly be barazek? I’d basically be making pistachio shortbread cookies.

Barazek are considered a Syrian specialty, but some say that barazek actually came from Turkey. I haven’t found much evidence to corroborate that, although one source says that barazek dates back to the Ottoman Empire, but the dessert is Syrian in origin, which another source confirms.

The recipe I’m translating today uses eggs, but it’s also common to make these cookies without eggs, which makes it easier to adapt for our vegan friends and those who have an egg allergy. And while these cookies are usually thin and crispy, if you prefer chewy cookies, like Sawsan Abu Farha (Chef in Disguise) and I do, you can make the cookies thicker or rather don’t flatten them as much.

As I said before, I’m allergic to sesame seeds, and sunflower seeds, which is why I won’t be able to taste this Syrian delicacy. I say allergy, but I’m not actually sure: I don’t react during prick tests. Yet, ingesting sunflower- and sesame-derived ingredients (even if they make up less than 2% of the dish) causes pain/irritation to my digestive system; applying substances that use sunflower- and sesame-derived ingredients to my skin causes me to break out; and inhaling sprays that use sunflower- and sesame-derived ingredients triggers my asthma.

When I was living in Palestine, it seemed like not many people had or were familiar with food allergies. You could also say the same for Americans though: I don’t know how many times servers have given me food that contained sesame ingredients after I specifically told them I was allergic. Anyways, I decided to look into theories food intolerance and allergies and see why it seems like more people in the US have allergies than people in Southwest Asia and North Africa (SWANA).

First, there isn’t a lot of data on food allergies from the SWANA region, whereas more and more studies are being conducted on food allergies in the US. One study on food allergies in the “developing world” suggests that food allergies aren’t actually rare, they’re merely underdiagnosed, and “many obstacles hinder the proper diagnosis of FA in the developing world.”

A study conducted in Lebanon found that the most prevalent allergies were cow’s milk in infants and young children and hazelnuts and wheat flour in adults. While peanut allergies were more prevalent than sesame allergies, sesame allergies resulted in anaphylaxis more often than peanut allergies. This study also found that most allergic reactions manifested as skin irritations and small percentage resulted in anaphylaxis, whereas one study conducted on anaphylaxis in the US suggests that anaphylaxis occurs in “at least 1 in 50 adults and more likely closer to 1 in 20 adults.” Could a greater prevalence of anaphylaxis in the US result in more stringent regulations and social norms concerning food allergies? Again, there isn’t enough data from the SWANA region to validate this speculation.

Here is a great article explaining what happens in your body when you have an allergic reaction, and it explores possible reasons why more and more people are developing food allergies. The short answer: scientists aren’t really sure, but studies suggest that genetics and biological predisposition influence your chances of developing an allergy. It’s certainly true for my family: my cousin, my brother, and I all developed allergies to food and other environmental allergies in our 20s. The prevalence of food allergies (and other allergies in general) is rising throughout the world and scientists don’t know the exact reason(s).

Here is how to make these interesting cookies (recipe and pictures belong to Nadia Tommalieh).

Ingredients

250 g of all-purpose flour
125 g of ghee (I use clarified butter)
½ cup of sugar
¼ cup of water
2 tablespoons of cold syrup
1/8 teaspoon of mastic
1/8 teaspoon of sugar
3/4 cup of crushed pistachios
¼ cup of flour, if needed when rolling out the dough

Sesame mixture:

200 g of toasted sesame seeds
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 tablespoon of cold water
1 tablespoon of cold syrup

Instructions

Combine the flour and ghee and knead well. The dough will be soft yet sticky. Put it into the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, mix the sugar with the water and syrup; stir well until it dissolves completely. Grind 1/8 teaspoon of mastic with 1/8 teaspoon of sugar, then add the sugar solution and mix well.

Pour the sugar solution over the chilled dough very slowly for at least 5 minutes. The dough will be very soft, but it’s important to use all of the solution. Next, knead the dough well. Add one to two extra tablespoons of flour and knead the dough until it becomes consistent. Put it into the refrigerator for 30 minutes again.

While the dough is chilling, combine the sesame seeds with the sugar, water, and syrup; then spread it out on a flat surface. Also spread out the pistachios on a flat surface, preferably close to the sesame seed mixture.

To make it easier to cut the dough, start sprinkling a little bit of flour, then roll it out. Cut the dough into small circles. Press the circles lightly onto the pistachios on one side. Then, press the circles onto the sesame on the other side twice, making sure not to mix the pistachios and sesame. Arrange the barazek on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper.

Bake them in an oven preheated to 180°C (~350°F) for 10 minutes. Then, check on them; you can leave them in there for a few minutes if needed or until they turn the right color. Set them aside until they cool completely before serving. Bon appetit!

Translators’ Discussion

The author uses أقراض (lit. ‘discs’) and I translated it as “circles” to describe precooked cookies after you cut dough. Would you translate this term differently?
When talking about making sure the cookies are done baking, the author says “the right color,” but I wasn’t really sure what that color is exactly since I’ve never made them before (I’m assuming golden brown like all other cookie recipes). How would you have translated this?