Umm Ali

Umm Ali (Umm Ali, Om Ali, أم علي) is an Egyptian sweet made by baking thin bread or pastry together with sweetened milk and nuts. The surface browns, while inside, the dough absorbs the milk and becomes soft. Spooned out of the warm dish, it lets you taste the toasty, well-baked parts together with the moist parts that have soaked up the milk.

A court legend tied to “the mother of Ali”

Umm Ali means “the mother of Ali” in Arabic. One account of the name’s origin is set in the Egyptian court of the 13th century. In the well-known version, after Shajar al-Durr was killed in 1257 amid a power struggle, Aybak’s former wife, the mother of Ali, who had been at odds with Shajar al-Durr, had a sweet made to celebrate her victory and distributed it to the people. According to the story, a sweet made with bread or pastry, milk, sugar and nuts came to be known by the name of the mother of Ali.

Some tellings say the former wife ordered Shajar al-Durr’s killing, while others focus on the scene in which she distributed the sweet after the death. The conflict between Aybak and Shajar al-Durr and the killings of both are events in medieval Egyptian history, but no known historical source establishes that present-day Umm Ali was created at that time. The legend linking court figures to the sweet is distinct from the period in which the current method took shape.

Baking dough and milk together

Bases include ruqaq (a thin Egyptian bread), phyllo and puff pastry, among others. In one method, the ruqaq or pastry is baked first and broken up, and the dry layers are then soaked in milk. In other examples, phyllo is used as it is without being baked beforehand, so the steps before the dough and milk are combined vary. The type of dough changes how quickly it absorbs the milk and how much of its shape remains once it has softened.

Warm milk with sugar dissolved in it is poured over the broken-up dough. Some versions mix in pistachios, almonds, raisins or coconut, and the top is finished with ashta or fresh cream. The parts that have absorbed the milk are soft, while the top browns in the heat of the oven. Unlike bread pudding, in which eggs set the milk, in recipes (ingredient proportions and methods) that use no eggs, the richness of the milk and how much liquid the dough absorbs determine the overall firmness.

The shape of the dish also affects how the sweet bakes. A shallow, wide dish gives a larger browned top surface, while a deep dish increases the moist portion inside. In another method, not all of the pastry is submerged in the milk; some is left on top during baking. This arrangement lets the cook choose whether to make the whole sweet evenly soft or to keep a crisp bite on top.

Umm Ali before baking, with layers of dough, nuts and milk combined. Photo: Miansari66, date unknown, location unknown. Original image / CC0. Reduced-size version from the source; no further processing.

A modern version using palmiers

Tasbih, who shares Egyptian baking, introduces a recipe that uses palmiers. A palmier is a baked laminated pastry with sugar rolled into it. Unlike ordinary puff pastry, it has the aroma of baked sugar on its surface, and that flavor carries into the parts soaked in milk. It is not an ingredient required for every Umm Ali, but one approach that makes use of the qualities of pastry that has already been baked.

Instead of mixing the nuts in, some serve them so that each person can add them. Even from the same large platter, the sweet-tartness of raisins and the crunch of nuts can be adjusted to taste. Not only the type of pastry but also the combination of milk, fresh cream and ashta changes the result, from light to rich.

Today, Umm Ali is also popular as a sweet for iftar, the meal after sunset during Ramadan. While it carries a story of lavish celebration, it is also a sweet of everyday milk and baked dough shared from a large platter. The cook’s choice of whether to keep the top toasty or let it soak up plenty of milk changes the impression of each serving spooned out.

Umm Ali topped with nuts, showing milk-soaked dough and browned areas. Photo: Mkevy, CC BY-SA 4.0 (source). Reduced-size version; no further alterations.

Umm Ali served at a shop in Cairo, its surface browned in the dish. Photo: Fred Cherrygarden, 2019-12-08, Cairo, Egypt. Original image / CC BY-SA 4.0. Reduced-size version from the source; no further processing.

Glossary