Monaqqa: the Lacy Pattern Cookie of Yazd

Monaqqa is a delicious cookie that is considered one of the traditional and popular Iranian sweets. Because it is very easy to make it, Iranian people, especially the people of Yazid, use it as one of the usual treats for their guests. Monaqqa can be made plain, or colored by adding food coloring.

Ingredients

Flour: one cup

Milk: one cup

Starch: half a cup

Eggs: three

Vanilla: half a teaspoon

Powdered sugar: half a cup

Rose water: two tablespoons

If you like, you can make this cookie using food coloring and make colorful cookies.

Although some people like the smell of rose water, the amount of rose water should not be too much, because it may affect the taste of sweets and even make it bitter.

You can also use water instead of milk, but milk makes Monaqqa taste much better.

Vanilla both gives a sweet taste to it and eliminates the unpleasant smell of eggs.

Sugar powder is used in the final stage to decorate the top of this cookie. If you do want the cookies to be too sweet, you can avoid it.

Recipe

• Pour the milk and rose water into a bowl and stir until completely smooth. Add the eggs to the bowl and continue mixing. It is better to add the eggs one by one and after adding each egg, stir the mixture for a minute or two. The consistency of the mixture is very important and if it is not well mixed, it may affect the final shape of Monaqqa. After the egg, it is time to add vanilla. In the same way as before, after adding vanilla, continue stirring the mixture.

Sieve the flour and add it to the earlier mixture step by step and continue stirring until you get a very smooth mixture.

To fry the Monaqqa, put a pan on low heat and pour oil into it. The cookies must float in the oil when being fried, otherwise, they will stick to the bottom of the pan, so it is better if your pan is not too big to use less oil.

If you want to make the sweets with a special mold, grease the mold with oil and heat it a little before molding. By doing this, it becomes easier to shape the cookies.

While frying, roll the Monaqqas every few minutes so that the starch does not settle at the bottom of the pan.

These cookies absorb a lot of oil during frying, so after frying, wrap it in a kitchen paper towel to absorb the excess oil. This also helps to cool down the Monaqqas. The last step is rolling the cookies in powdered sugar, but make sure they have become cool enough because the hot ones will not absorb the powdered sugar.

Certain Points to Be Observed in Baking the Yazdi Cake

If you like, you can add a little yogurt to the mixture before starting the process of frying. Yogurt gives a pleasant taste to these sweets but softens the texture of the sweets. If you like them crunchier, use milk.

It is also possible to make the cookies without using a mold. But in this case, the batter will spread on the surface of the pan and it cannot be called “Manaqqa” anymore. This sweet can also be made with a funnel. To do this, pour the mixture into the funnel and when the oil in the pan is hot, squeeze the mixture into the oil through the funnel. If you use this method, be careful not to splatter the oil when pouring the batter.

Monaqqa is a delicious cookie that is considered one of the traditional and popular Iranian sweets. Because it is very easy to make it, Iranian people, especially the people of Yazid, use it as one of the usual treats for their guests. Monaqqa can be made plain, or colored by adding food coloring.