VAL: Tunisian Kaak Warka

Before I sail back out of virtual Tunisia, I needed to try to make a dish from there. in this case I tried this recipe for Kaak Warka.

Kaak Warka are marzipan filled cookies that look like little donuts and they are baked at low temperatures to keep them as white as possible even after they are cooked.

It’s a bit unnerving, actually, if this is not something you’re used to.

Honestly I had no idea what I was doing. I don’t roll cookies often. I had to convert the recipe amounts and the temperature because we’re not on metric here in any meaningful way. (Sigh)

Converting recipes does not always yield the most outstanding results, as my family’s foreign exchange student learned, back in the day. Oh the cakes that the birds got to enjoy that year! 🤣

Also this recipe was a lot simpler than the other one I found. Simple can mean “easy to make” but does not always mean better tasting. But that recipe had a lot of leaveners in them – some of which would also tend to brown – so I suspect they result in a cakier texture.

The verdict was that the filling was quite nice. The cookie portion was a bit bland. More sugar might have helped, though that would have encouraged browning, which was expressly not supposed to happen.

I don’t know. Maybe a honey glaze. Something.

Still, that’s another attempt made at a locally inspired dish.

And with just one more “new” country coming up ahead, I need to start finding some options for Algerian food next.