Tamriyeh

Break through the thin pastry, and a warm semolina filling appears. Tamriyeh is a fried sweet popular in Nablus, Palestine. Dusted with powdered sugar while freshly fried, it is enjoyed at the breakfast table and in sweet shops.

Thin Pastry and a Soft Filling

Semolina is cooked with sugar and water, and once it thickens, it is spread out to cool. The set filling is cut into pieces, wrapped in thinly rolled wheat dough, and deep-fried, giving a light exterior and a moist interior. Some households scent the filling with orange blossom water.

Cooking the semolina and shaping it in advance makes it easier to wrap in the thin pastry. The powdered sugar sprinkled on after frying adds a light sweetness to the toasty pastry. Several sweets in the Levant share the same name, and in Homs, Syria, there are examples that use milk cream or dates.

Home cook Maha Salah recalls her grandmother making it quickly with spring roll wrappers. For homemade pastry, flour and water are kneaded, rested, and rolled out thin, taking care not to tear it. She says spring roll wrappers make it lighter and crisper, while homemade pastry keeps a different thickness. It is also described as a sweet the family gathers to enjoy on Friday mornings.

A 2017 on-the-ground report showed Tawfiq Askalan, who makes sweets in a Nablus market, frying them to order. Families sometimes place large orders for Friday breakfast or wedding celebrations, according to the report. In a separate 2022 report, he also said that demand rises in the colder season.

“Tamr” is the Arabic word for the fruit of the date palm, yet the Nablus-style filling contains no dates. Because there are also sweets called tamriyeh that are baked with a date filling, the name alone does not tell you what is inside.

It is known as a Nablus specialty, but accounts differ on its exact place of origin and the origin of its name. Compared with Znoud el Sit, which combines thin pastry with a milk filling, it differs in its filling and finish.

Glossary