Sweets in Egypt

What kind of sweets can you find in Egypt? These can include cookies, oriental pastries, milk-based desserts, pancakes, baklavas, etc…

This article completes the two previous ones: Vegetarian food in Egypt and Drinks in Egypt. With these three articles you will have a good overview of what you can eat and drink in Egypt (excluding meat and alcoholic drinks). This article will give you a good idea of the kind of sweets you can find in Egypt, and is based on our 20 years of experience in this country.

• Oriental Pastries

You will find oriental pastries in special sweet shops, like El Abd and Tseepass—two very famous chains of sweet stores.

Oriental pastries are usually very, very sweet. Here is a list of the different types of these desserts (which are very popular in Egypt): the basboosa (made with semolina and yogurt), the konava, baklavas, sawabe’ Zeinab, belah el sham (fried sticks), and lomat el ‘adee (fried balls).

Basboosa by Waleed Alzuhair on flickr

• Cookies

In the bakeries you will find plenty of different cookies, some stuffed with date paste or jam, as well as European style pastries such as croissants and Danishes. You will also find a kind of pancake called feteera moshaltat that is made with the same dough as the Egyptian Pizza, but which is sweet. If you go to an Egyptian pizza restaurant you can have a sweet feteera filled with peanuts, nuts, and cream. The ones you find in bakeries aren’t stuffed.

During the feast that follows Ramadan (Eïd El Fitr), people eat a special kind of cookies called kahks, which are made of wheat and sugar and sometimes stuffed with date paste and nuts.

Kahk El Eïd by dida 136 on flicker

• Milk-Based Desserts

There are a lot of delicious milk-based sweets in Egypt. One of the most famous is the om ‘Aly, a kind of pudding made with a special bread and some milk cooked in a oven and covered with different kinds of nuts and dry raisins. This is a must try

Om Aly by hijabhipster on flickr

Another very nice dessert is the rice pudding (roz bel laban that you will find in the kooshary restaurants. In many restaurants you will find also mahlabeya (another kind of pudding) and beleela (a pudding made with grains, wheat and milk).

You will find these desserts in restaurants, and sometimes in special “milk-based desserts” shops.

• Ice Creams

And finally, you will find lots of ice cream shops everywhere! There is a famous one in Alexandria on Mahatat El Raml street. Enjoy the sweets in Egypt!