Sekerpare is the name for semolina cookies soaked in sweet syrup. It is melting in your mouth and satisfies your sweet tooth wonderfully.
This post was originally published in 2009 and has been updated with new pictures and additional information.
What Is Sekerpare?
Very similar to lots of other Middle Eastern desserts, seker pare is a type of cookies made of semolina and soaked in a sweet syrup. Sekerpare means bit of sugar in Turkish. As the name implies, shekerpare will be the best solution for you if you have difficulty to satisfy your sweet tooth.
Ingredients For Sheqerpare
These are basically cookies made with a combination of flour and semolina. And they are already sweet and yummy as they are, even without syrup. On the other hand, you have to try them with syrup if you have a sweet tooth that is hard to satify.
The syrup made with sugar, water and lemon juice take these simple looking cookies to another level.
How To Make Seker Pare Dessert
The recipe has three folds: Making the syrup, baking the cookies and combining these two.
First, make the syrup.
Pour water and sugar in a pot. Heat them until it boils. Let it boil about 15 minutes until it reaches the right consistency.
Add lemon juice and take it from the heat. Put it aside and let it cool completely.
Pro Tip: Make sure the syrup is cold while the cookies are hot.
Second, make the cookies.
Combine butter, flour, semolina, sugar, an egg and baking powder until everything holds well and you have a non-sticky dough.
Pick about a tablespoon of dough and roll them into balls. Put them in a slightly greased baking sheet leaving enough space between each as they will rise when cooked.
Place hazelnuts on their top pressing gently.
Bake them in oven for 25 minutes or until golden.
Third, combine the cookies with the syrup.
Pour the syrup when the cookies are still hot. You can pour it with a ladle on each piece. Wait until the cookies absorb the water. You can serve it with black tea.
Note: I make 50 pieces from these ingredients, but pour the syrup on 25 of them as I put the other half in refrigerator to make it another time. When I have any unexpected guests, I just prepare the syrup and pour it hot on the cold cookies to serve them tasty sekerpare. Don’t forget the rule for pouring syrup on cookies for skerpare. If the cookies are hot, the syrup must be cold or vice versa.
OTHER TRADITIONAL TURKISH SWEETS
- Turkish Halva With Flour
- Homemade Tulumbe Recipe
- Sesame Candies
- Homemade Turkish Delights
- Turkish Halva With Semolina
- Semolina Cake Revani
Sekerpare
Semolina cookies soaked in sweet syrup.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 50 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Turkish
Ingredients
For its dough:
- 2 cups flour
- ½ cup semolina
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 125g butter
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- Hazelnuts
For its syrup:
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 and ½ cups water
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
Instructions
- As we must let the syrup get cold before pouring it on sekerpare cookies, start with making the syrup first.
- Pour water and sugar in a pot. Heat them until it boils. Let it boil about 15 minutes until it reaches the right consistency.
- Add lemon juice and take it from the heat. Put it aside and start preparing the cookies.
- Combine butter, flour, semolina, sugar, an egg and baking powder. Knead them well.
- Preheat the oven at 180C.
- Pick walnut sized pieces from dough and roll them. Put them in an oiled baking pan leaving enough space between each as they will rise when cooked.
- Place hazelnuts on their top pressing gently. Cook them in oven for 25 minutes until golden.
- Pour the syrup when the cookies are still hot. You can pour it with a ladle on each piece. Wait until the cookies absorb the water.
- You can serve it with black tea.
Notes
These cookies freeze well without the syrup. So you can store half of the cookies in the freezer after they cool completely. When you want to turn them into sheqerpare dessert, thaw them first. Make the syrup, pour the hot syrup over cold cookies and let them absorb the syrup.
Keywords: semolina cookies, sekerpare, sheqerpare recipe
Rory says
Are we sure the grams of butter is correct? Only 4 0z of butter? Flour mix seems pretty dry with just that.
Helen says
I haven't made these - I am writing a story with a character who is Turkish and needed to know if sekerpare could be made at home! Clearly they can be - perhaps I'll have a go myself!
So interesting reading the comments and seeing how the food influences have spread around the world.
Dorian says
I must say I was not surprised to find out this is a sweet common in Turkey too. I live in Albania and we have this "sheqerpare" tradition to in the area of Diber (Debar in North Macedonia). However I was disappointed by the recipe. I don't mean that this sekerpare is not good, on the contrary, I know it is delicious. But here I wanted to give you the Albanian version (which most probably fits with the old Turkish version given our mutual past). The ingredients are flour, egg yolks (a lot of them), melted butter and sugar... Yes that's all! But the secret stands with the way it's done! It takes up to 4 hrs to make a tray of it!! You really need to knead the flour and egg yolks for a loooong time with your hands until it becomes like flour again, thin and without stocked little balls (you'll need to pass it through a sieve at the end). Than it's time to mix with the melted butter (quite a lot too) until it becomes creamy. That's it, bake it and put the syrup the same way as described in your recipe. In Albania too they try to invent short ways of making it differently, but I'm pretty sure this is the old recipe of the real Sekerpare!
Zerrin says
Hi Dorian! Oh wow! Although I'm not surprised to hear that you have sekerpare in Albania because we share a cultural history, I didn't know about this version of it. Sounds like it requires a lot of effort unlike this easy recipe. Bet it is even yummier! Thank you for sharing it here with us. Cheers from Turkey!
Anooshka says
What a great post! I loved it:-) Just would like to mention that it is not a Turkish desert it is Iranian as it name is combination of two Persian words Shekar=sugar and Pare=piece. Thank you for your wammy recipe<3
★★★★
Zerrin says
Hi Anooshka, thanks for the contribution. We make it quite often in Turkey, but I didn't know its origin. Always love to learn the root of words and foods.
Emalie says
Hi there, great recipe! Have been making this for a long time as I am Albanian and this dish is also a treasured traditional dessert in our culture. We call it Sheqerpare, spelt a little different, but pronounced almost the same. Interestingly, the names in both Turkish and Albanian translate to sugar money - as the completed dessert resembles golden coins.
Thanks again for this wonderful post!
Kore says
This looks yummy. I'm thinking of making one now using your recipe. Do you think it would be nice eating it without soaking it in the syrup?
Zerrin says
Thank you Kore! They still taste great without the syrup. They are like crunchy cookies that way, but they are moist and sweeter with the syrup.
Zeinab says
It's really amazing and delicious. Very simple and quick to serve for guests. Thanks a lot for the the recipes. I did it and the result was marvelous.
Zerrin says
Melike- It's so interesting as this is what I make often with these measurements. I spend some time on combining the ingredients to make that soft dough. I mean, at the beginning it seems it's impossible to combine them, but after kneading it some time, it gets combined and softer. Maybe you should use powdered sugar, it may work better. Maybe the problem is about the cups we use. My cup is about 180 or 200 gr.
melike says
Hi, tried the recipe, but I reckon 125 gr butter isnt sufficient for SEKERPARE dough for it to become smooth as you are showing in these photos. Mine was very hard to get it together and looking smooth like yours so I had to add 1 more egg which made the recipe 2 eggs and cookies didnt spread out like they should in your photos!
I used the butter at room temperature and it was still hard to get the dough together, you may check your measurements again!
zerrin says
Christy- Thanks for visiting my blog. I used granulated sugar.
christy says
These cookies look great! Did you use granulated sugar or powdered sugar?
Thank you!
Stamatia says
Oooo these look so tasty! Greeks made a syrup-soaked cookie like this too, but it's dark with spices, and covered in walnut pieces (melomakarona, or finikia)...but these look much less fussy and I just can't resist semolina + syrup (even after my last semolina-halva disaster!) If I have enough semolina left, I'll have to try these on the weekend...
jouhayna says
here is the link to my blog if you wont to see my sekerpare
http://jouhayna.canalblog.com/archives/2009/10/15/15441553.html
kisses
lisaiscooking says
These look like wonderful sweet treats! The hazelnut in the center looks great too.
Nicisme says
These look fabulous and (as you say) perfect for that sweet tooth. I could eat a bunch of them!!
Faith says
This really looks like the perfect sweet treat! These are so pretty to look at, and I bet they're incredibly delicious.
Hillary says
These look simple but delectable. Thanks for sharing!
Dee says
I've never heard of sekerpares, but they look amazing.
This reminds me of the Indian sweet (gulab jamun?) that's doused in a syrup. Mmm...
Thanks for stopping by Zerrin. Hope to see more of you 🙂
elra says
Another lovely, and tempting recipe Zerrin!
Mely says
I love those cookies! I saw them the first time at Angela food love blog and when they come out, they are so crunchy with the mix of the semolina, they soon became one of my favorites. This new version (to me) with the syrup is something I should try next time I bake them. Angela from the Food love blog uses almonds instead of Hazelnuts. I can't wait to try them with Hazelnuts.
Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella says
These syrup cookies look so divine! 😀 I can see why they jumped to the top of your favourites list!
sophia says
I LOVE the use of semolina for that little gritty texture...AWESOME!
Natasha - 5 Star Foodie says
These look like such wonderful sweet treats! I love the whole hazelnuts on top!
Reeni says
These are so unique with the syrup over the top. They look soft and sweet and incredibly yummy!
jouhayna says
salam
thanks a lot for your answer, am going to do sekerpare soon
kisses
lk says
this look so good! i love the idea of the cold cookie with warm syrup. divine!
Erkin says
Zerrin, Şekerpare is one of the most popular deserts in Turkey, and it has a lot of incurable fans some of whom can eat about 1 kilos at a time.
I also like to eat a few after a light meal with a few glasses of Rakı. For those who like eating deserts after drinking, Şekerpare is a perfect recipe. Thank you..
jouhayna says
salam
thanks for sharing this recipe, i saw it in many blogs but your photos sound so delicious that I've decided to make these cookies
I wont just to ask about baking pouder: what do you mean by dessert spoon? a tspoon or tblspoon? If you can give me the baking pouder in gr, It'll be so good for me?
Thanks for your help
Nice day
jenn (Bread + Butter) says
My sweet tooth is agreeing with me that yes, we'd like to have a bunch of these to snack on.
Zerrin says
Oyster- These are not regular cookies, they are beyond that with that syrup they absorb. And everyone you serve will love them.
Gera- Thank you. This is definitely the best way to satisfy our sweet tooth.
Erica- Thank you. And they taste delicious, too:)
Jessie- I can eat these even when they are just cookies, but when they absorb the syrup, they get much more yummy! Simple and satisfying!
Jenn- A bunch of these may not be enough 🙂
Jouhayna- Happy to hear you loved sekerpare. In fact, dessert spoon is something between tspoon and tblspoon. We eat desserts with it. And it takes about 5g baking powder. Hope this is helpful for you and hope you love it when you try.
Erkin- I may be one of those fans, I can eat sekerpare every single day! As you say, some people crave for dessert after drinking, and I recommend them to have sekerpare. It goes very well at any time.
Jessie says
great cookies, I love how simple and easy they are to make
Erica says
Great blog entry as usual! They look and sound delicious.
Gera @ SweetsFoods says
This post is utterly for my sweet tooth, they look absolutely scrumptious 🙂
Ideal for tea time or coffee!
Cheers,
Gera
OysterCulture says
That these are going to be delicious I do not doubt, but they are so simple and elegant - I cannot wait to serve them. I love the glaze on top