This is a recipe from 13th-century Aleppo for a very simple type of biscuit, which was a variant for a sweet known as ‘urnīn‘, which was quite popular since another recipe can be found in a Baghdadi cookery book.
In Arabic it is called khubz al-abāzīr (خبز الأبازير), which translates as spiced, or seeded bread; its preparation could not be more simple and involves kneading wheat flour with sesame oil, sesame seeds, pistachios and almonds and then shaping it into round cakes before baking until browned. The full urnīn recipe, in case you’re wondering, includes a filling of sugar pistachios and almonds, added with aromatics like rose water and musk. But that, as they say, is for another day! For now, it is time to enjoy the more basic variety!
