Umm Ali
Tips
If you have been wondering how to make umm Ali that is smoother, creamier, and less textured, the best tip is to chop the nuts and raisins very finely or give them a few pulses in your blender or food processor. You can also tear the puff pastry into smaller pieces so it will be soaked through faster by the sweet milk. On the other hand, if you would like an even more textured and crunchy umm Ali, simply use big pieces of puff pastry and coarsely chopped cuts. Broiling the dessert for the final few minutes of oven time will also crisp up the cream layer slightly.
Questions about om Ali
Om Ali, umm Ali, or oumm Ali, this authentic dish’s names vary just as much as its flavourful ingredients. With our om Ali recipe, you can make a tasty, traditional bread pudding-like dessert with puff pastry, nuts, raisins, and coconut flakes with creamy, thick cream on top. To learn more about it, read our answers to the most frequently asked questions below.
Ingredients
Puff pastry, squared | 10 sheets |
|---|---|
Cream | 160 g |
Egg, beaten | 1 |
Milk | 1200 ml |
Sugar | 200 g |
Butter | 500 g |
Cinnamon | 1 tbsp |
Vanilla | 1 tsp |
Walnuts, chopped | 100 g |
Raisins | 160 g |
Almonds, sliced | 70 g |
Aleppo pistachios, chopped | 100 g |
Roasted hazelnuts, chopped | 120 g |
Coconut flakes | 75 g |
Other recipes
Classic Middle Eastern umm Ali dessert
The Arabic dessert umm Ali is a sweet, flavourful bread pudding with warm spices and tasty nuts. When served warm, the gooey and slightly crunchy treat is beyond delicious. The warming spice and sweet ingredients used to make it result in an amazing aroma of Middle Eastern spices and sweetness spreading throughout your home as it bakes.
It is surprisingly easy and simple to make, and preparing the ingredients ahead of time and serving umm Ali fresh allows you to end your iftar dinner in a hassle-free way without compromising on freshness and flavour.
Umm Ali with puff pastry and cream
A traditional umm Ali is slightly crispy when freshly made. Even though the buttery, baked puff pastry is soaked with sweet milk, making the centre of the pieces soft and tender, the edges usually remain a bit crispy for a few hours after baking. The combination of soft and slightly crispy pastry, crunchy nuts, chewy raisins, and gooey broiled cream creates a puff pastry umm Ali with a lot of different textures that look great with its golden-brown surface with crunchy toppings.
Delicious baked dessert with Middle Eastern flavours
The cinnamon used to flavour the umm Ali sweet milk gives it a characteristic sweet-spicy flavour. The spice also gives the rich milk mixture made with sugar and butter a wonderful warming quality that pairs well with the milky flavour and richness of the cream. The other umm Ali ingredients – the coconut flakes, hazelnuts, almonds, walnuts, pistachios, and raisins – give the dessert a wonderful multi-faceted sweetness with nutty, earthy, and fruity flavours.
If this traditional umm Ali recipe with puff pastry has made you excited to look for more tasty, traditional desserts with great flavour, why not check out our recipes for kulaj, mafroukeh, and kunafa?
Add your own touch
Since there is no one recipe for umm Ali, you can experiment to create the best umm Ali recipe for you and your family by playing around with different spices like zesty cardamom, earthy and floral saffron, or warm-spicy cloves. The warm milk may also be flavoured with aromatics like orange blossom water or rosewater.
You might also like to try using, for example, sweet-tart dried cranberries or chopped, caramel-like dates instead of raisins or sprinkling the traditional bread pudding with chocolate chips before baking it for a rich, gooey, and surprising addition.