Almond Cigars
Hey, hey! 4th Fiesta Friday. Angie is a wonderful hostess, I’m delighted to go with my Petite Paniere full of surprises. Today, something sweet and full of flavor to share with you.
Almond Cigars made with a dough called Diouls sheets or Brick sheets. It’s made with fine semolina a pinch of salt and spread with water. This pastry sheet is very popular in Algeria and in North Africa as a savory or as a sweet dessert. They are sold flat and round and they dry out very quickly, leave them with a clean kitchen cloth and they cook perfectly in the oven too.
The Almond Cigars are filled with almond paste or walnut paste, fried then soaked into warm honey flavored with orange blossom.
Serves 10
Ingredients:
- 10 leaves of Diouls or brick sheet (or 5 Phyllo dough cut in half)
- 250g almond powder
- 100g of caster sugar
- 1 teaspoon of cinnamon powder
- 1 tablespoon of orange blossom water (or more)
- Sunflower oil for frying
- Honey
Method:
- In a large bowl, add the almond powder and the sugar.
- Mix with a fork.
- Add the cinnamon and mix.
- Pour slowly the orange blossom water until the dough becomes assembled, like almond paste and set aside.
For a cigar shape:
- Take one sheet and add a little of the stuffing (a small roll of 10 centimeters) with a teaspoon at 3 centimeters of the edge of the sheet.
- Fold the edges of the sheet (right and then left).
- Fold the stuffing edge and roll slowly, you have a cigar shape.
- Proceed the same way for the rest of your Diouls sheet.
- In a cooking, pan adds a little of sunflower oil on a medium heat.
- Cook the cigars until they become golden color.
- Remove from the heat and drain it into a colander, set aside for 15 minutes.
- In a small cooking pot, add the honey (I choose an orange blossom honey for this recipe).
- Cook on a low heat.
- When the honey is warm, deep the cigar, one by one into the honey.
- Remove from the pan and put them into a serving dish.
Serve Bourek Errana with a hot North African mint tea. The smell of the fresh mint, the honey, the orange flower blossom and this delicatessen are sweet and invite you to relax.
Bonne dégustation!
PS: They come in different shapes, cigars like today Bourek Errana, triangle called Samsa in Algerian language or round like a snail M’hancha. For this recipe you can use Phyllo dough, I suggest you cut in half the filo sheet, it will be easier for working because Phyllo dough is much bigger than Dioul dough.
Note, this is not Phyllo (sheet) Dough!
Wow, Linda, what are these extremely interesting and delectable creation? Never seen or heard anything like it before! Oh, I wish our virtual party had a teleport so I can taste one of these! Sounds so scrumptious and heavenly with orange blossom water? You need to open a bakery right here in my town. I’ll be the first in line! 🙂
Thanks Angie 🙂 Your wish is my command, starting tomorrow I’ll send you everyday a basket of sweets 🙂 They are very easy to prepare (a lazy mum like myself adores simple recipes…). You’re a lovely hostess xo
I hate to sound like Angie’s echo, but I’ve never heard of this either! Your almond cigars sounds absolutely scrumptious! I’ll have to research if Diouls sheets are available in my area, as I’d love to try this out…now 🙂
Thank you Nancy and it’s a pleasure to share. If you don’t have Diouls around your area you can use Filo dough, it’s the same process.
These look so lovely, especially with the tea setup you have here. I learned so many new things from your post today!
Thank you so much. Preparing and pouring tea is a nice ceremony and always with sweet desserts. Next time I will introduce how to prepare North African tea 🙂
bonne continuation LINDA c’est vraiment magnifique et délicieux .encore bravo !!;)
Saha Safou, merci pour tes encouragements, c’est grace a toi et ton support que je prends plaisir a continuer. :)))
Lovely cigars my dear and gorgeous pictures! I loved your props and dark hue pictures…. Complimenting each other so well :).
Thank you my dear friend. We spend a lovely afternoon sip and chat with my relatives 🙂
An afternoon spent well. 🙂
:)))
Gorgeous!!! They look so tasty 🙂
Thanks for your lovely comment 🙂
What a fun treat!
Yes and we appreciate little small moments in life.
my mother( god rest her soul )used to bake those cigars during ramadhan but we did triangle called samsas i’m sure you know it
it so delicious !!!!!!
Allah yarham ta maman. I do samsas and mhancha too. They are sweet and delicious…A lovely tradition and recipe, have a nice week 🙂
These are unique and lovely. Happy to have found your blog through FF#4! Great fun, isn’t it?
Thank you so much and thanks FF#4 (Angie), lovely time and lovely people 🙂
Absolutely gorgeous presentation, Linda. I feel like I walked into a tea house in the Middle-East. These almond cigars seem to taste like their cousin baklava. Perfect with tea as you have demonstrated.
I agree with you Fae, we really love these little delicatessen at home and the smell of the orange water blossom spread throughout the house. Yes, it tastes like baklava but Algerian baklava is different (the dough is prepared with pasta machine). Next time I will post baklava. Have a nice week 🙂
oh my gosh! These look absolutely gorgeous and the presentation was lovely too! Incidentally I had just seen something similar in a North African cooking book that I was planning to make soon. I will have to try with filo dough though not sure where I can find Douls…
Thank you Indu. You have another option to try this sweet and honey cigar, you can use “spring roll sheet” and I’m sure your version will be great 🙂
oh good to know! I will make it one of these days and let you know! thanks so much! 🙂
These look amazing! Unlike anything I’ve seen before. What a fantastic idea! 🙂
Thanks Lisa 🙂
The pastry sheet is completely new to me. Your almond cigars look wonderful!
Thank you 🙂
These look so yummy and perfect with a nice hot cup of coffee! I have some phyllo in my freezer and might give this recipe a try this weekend! Yum!
Thank you Julianna. If you try them, I’m sure you’ll we love them 🙂
Mon pêché mignon !! C’était une des spécialités de ma maman ( Allah yarhamha) mais elle faisait la pâte elle-même .Bien sûr avec dioul c’est très bon aussi et surtout c’est vite fait ,mais il faut consommer de suite,pour les soirées ramadanesques !!
Je mettrais la recette un jour sur A C .
Je vois que je ne suis pas la seule a aimer ces douceurs. Il est revolu le temps ou l’on faisait tout a la main (Allah yarham ta maman). On essaye de garder les coutumes quand meme, c’est le plus important. Bisous 🙂
Ça a l’air délicieux avec la fleur d’oranger et surtout les photos sont superbes.
Merci beaucoup Zelda, c’est vrai que l’eau de fleurs d’oranger apporte un petit plus a ces douceurs. Bon week-end 🙂
Hi! Found your blog through FF 🙂
Almond cigars look so delicious! Beautiful photos! I have filo sheets, so I’ll try to make cigars, hope will be not much difference?
Thank you so much :)This is the same taste, filo sheets are just more fragile.
Tu m’as mis l’eau a la bouche Linda, tes belles photos sont dignes d’y figurer dans un beau livre de cuisine pro…
Merci beaucoup Neila. J’adore ces cigares, simple a faire et l’odeur de l’eau de fleurs d’oranger embaume…Merci pour ta visite.
I shouldn’t visit your blog when I haven’t had my breakfast Linda…j’ai faim!! et tes photos sont trop belles and enchanting! bravo bravo!
I’m sorry Warda 🙂 On se regale a la maison. Merci pour ton commentaire, n’oublie pas que cette aventure c’est grace a toi petite fleur. Bisous 🙂
Is this the same dough that is used for algerian bourek?
Yes, exactly the same dough that we use for Algerian bourek! 🙂