的黎波里的街头甜点，用粗麦粉加阿卡维奶酪和糖水煮成柔软可塑的面团，卷入奶酪，传统上夹在一片 Dabbousi 圆面包里卖。名字 maajouqa 意为「被反复揉搓的」，指面团被搓软的过程。
Maajouqa is a street sweet and breakfast of Tripoli, sold in the old souks of the northern Lebanese city. Akkawi cheese is heated on an iron sheet, sprinkled with semolina and scented with orange-blossom water, then stretched by hand, cut, and tossed in fine sugar; it is traditionally eaten tucked inside a round of local kaak bread, whose grain buffers the sweetness. The Dabbousi (الدبوسي) family of the old souk has made maajouqa its signature since 1930, passing the craft down through generations. Tripoli styles itself the capital of Lebanese oriental sweets, and maajouqa is counted alongside Beirut's daaouqiyeh and Sidon's senioura as one of Lebanon's distinctive family sweets.
The semolina-cheese dough is soft and slightly chewy with a mellow, milky sweetness; the rolled cheese within is salty-sweet and elastic; eaten inside the plain Dabousi bread, the whole becomes a comforting, bread-wrapped cream-and-cheese parcel.
Cooking semolina in sugar-water gelatinizes its starches into a sticky, pliable mass, while the akkawi cheese — a low-melt, slightly salty white cheese — melts in and contributes stretchy casein that gives the dough its chew, mirroring the cheese-starch complex of knafeh. The sugar syrup does double duty: it sweetens, and it acts as a plasticizer keeping the dough soft enough to roll thin without cracking. Served inside bread, the dough's moisture is buffered so it does not weep.
Variations
Some Tripoli makers add a thin layer of ashta alongside the cheese. A modern plated version skips the Dabousi bread and serves the roll sliced with syrup and pistachios like other cream sweets.
On the Palate
Where Maajouqa sits in the Lebanese flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 8How it's made
6 steps · 50 min
- 18 min
In a pan combine 1 cup semolina, 1 cup water and 1/2 cup sugar; cook over medium heat, stirring, until it thickens into a soft mass, about 6 minutes.
Watch outStir constantly until the semolina pulls together into a soft glossy mass that mounds on the spoon — stop stirring and it catches and scorches on the bottom.
- 27 min
Add 200 g shredded akkawi (or mozzarella) cheese; continue cooking and stirring until the cheese melts and the mass turns smooth, stretchy and pulls from the pan, about 5 minutes more.
Watch outKeep cooking and stirring until the cheese has fully melted in and the whole mass turns stretchy and cleanly peels away from the pan — that pull is the chew you want.
- 37 min
Turn out onto an oiled surface; with oiled hands knead briefly until smooth; roll or press into a thin rectangle about 2-3 mm thick.
Watch outRoll while it's still warm and pliable — once it cools it stiffens and cracks when you try to thin it out.
- 46 min
Spread a thin layer of additional shredded cheese along one long edge; roll the dough up around it into a log.
- 55 min
Cut the log into 4-5 cm pieces; traditionally, tuck each piece inside a round of warm Dabousi (or kaak) bread.
- 65 min
Dust with icing sugar or drizzle lightly with syrup; serve warm.
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