Ghraybeh

A pale cookie that looks underbaked. One pistachio or almond sits in the middle, the rim is fluted, the top is left unglazed. It collapses the moment it reaches your mouth. That is where the name comes from: gharib, strange, because it puts up no resistance to the bite.

What is in it and what is not

Clarified butter is beaten with sugar until it turns white, then flour goes in and the dough is worked as little as possible. No egg. No water. In most recipes no raising agent either. The oven stays low and the tray comes out before the colour turns, because a browned ghraybeh is simply a biscuit. The pallor is not a fault. It is the measure.

How it differs from maamoul

Maamoul is filled — dates, walnuts or pistachios. Ghraybeh is hollow. Maamoul is built on semolina and has a body you chew; ghraybeh is flour and fat and has none. They sit side by side on the same Eid tray, and one bite settles which is which.

When and where to find it

Households bake trays of it before Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, and it comes out with coffee when guests arrive. It also sits in sweet-shop windows all year, sold by weight. Nobody stacks it in a box. It breaks under its own weight.