The Warbat bil Ashta is a dessert made with phyllo dough stuffed with an ashta filling, a Middle Eastern milk cream flavored with rose or orange blossom water, and sprinkled with sugar syrup and nuts.
A sort of stuffed baklava.
The ashta was traditionally prepared by removing the layer of fat that forms when boiling milk, similar to the Russian Kasha, English clotted cream, or Turkish kaymak.
The homemade version (quicker): prepare a sort of sweet béchamel by thickening milk with starch and aromas.
Ashta is served as a filling or topping in many Middle Eastern desserts:
• Qatayef bil Ashta (small pancakes filled with cream and served with syrup)
• Osmalieh / Othmaliyeh (layers of kadayif dough with cream)
• Aish as‑Saraya (dessert with bread crumbs and ashta cream)
- Difficulty: Medium
- Cost: Economical
- Preparation time: 20 Minutes
- Portions: 10 pieces
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Arab
Ingredients for Warbat bil Ashta:
- 10 phyllo dough sheets
- 7 oz clarified butter
- 2 cups milk
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 2/3 cup cornstarch
- 1 to taste orange blossom or rose essence
- to taste nuts (pistachio crumbles, walnuts, almonds…)
- 5/6 cup water
- 1/2 lemon (juice)
- 1 1/2 cup sugar
Preparation
Cut the phyllo dough into squares and brush each sheet with melted clarified butter.
Layer 5 sheets and fold the squares to form triangles.
Bake at 482°F for 10 minutes.
For ashta: pour the milk into a large saucepan and add the sugar. Dissolve the starch in a bit of cold milk in a separate bowl. [3]
Add the dissolved starch to the warm milk, stirring constantly with a whisk to avoid lumps.
Cook over medium‑low heat, continuing to stir until the mixture thickens into a glossy, dense cream (about 8‑10 minutes).
Remove from heat and incorporate the orange blossom water (or rose water).Fill the triangles once cooled. Decorate the cream part that protrudes with the nut crumbles.
For the syrup: boil the ingredients and pour the syrup, once cold, over the triangles.
Khaled Khalifa, one of the most renowned Syrian writers, has always been critical of the Assad government. His works have often been banned in his home country, and he has faced intimidation and violence, such as a broken hand in 2012.
Author of four novels and some poetry collections, he received the 2013 Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature for There Are No Knives in the Kitchens of This City, which you can also purchase online.
