Recipe
🍰 DESSERT
Om Ali
A warm bread pudding of flaky pastry soaked in sweet spiced milk with nuts and coconut, Egypt's national dessert.
Egyptian · easy · serves 6
prep 15 min · cook 30 min
~735 cal · 17g protein · 71g carbs · 44g fat · 7g fiber · 42g sugars · 23g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Om Ali, meaning mother of Ali, is often called Egypt's national dessert, a rich bread pudding wrapped in a legend of medieval palace intrigue. Whatever its true origin, it is the warm, comforting sweet Egyptians turn to for celebrations and cold evenings.
Layers of flaky pastry or bread are broken up and soaked in hot sweetened milk, then studded with nuts, raisins, and coconut, topped with cream, and baked until golden and bubbling. Served hot straight from the oven, it is at once crisp on top and soft and custardy beneath, rich, nutty, and fragrant, the kind of pudding that draws the whole family to the table.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 6
10 oz puff pastry or flaky bread
4 cups whole milk
3/4 cup mixed nuts (almonds, pistachios), chopped
3/4 cup raisins and shredded coconut
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup cream, to top
Instructions
1
Bake or toast the pastry until crisp and golden, then break into pieces in a baking dish.
2
Scatter over the nuts, raisins, and coconut.
3
Heat the milk with the sugar and pour over to soak the pastry.
✎ Chef’s note
Let the milk soak in for a few minutes before baking so the pastry drinks it up and turns custardy underneath while staying crisp on top.
4
Top with cream and bake at 400F (200C) until golden and bubbling; serve hot.
Egyptian national dessert.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Cairo. Koshari is not pharaonic and it is not five thousand years old. The earliest written trace is Richard Burton describing lentils, rice, ghee and onions at Suez in the 1850s; a serious account routes it from Indian khichri by way of soldiers under the British; the pasta was only added around 1953 as a way of stretching it; and tomatoes did not reach Egypt until the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century.
🗺️
Egypt. Koshari's origins are argued rather than settled. The rice and lentils resemble both Indian khichri, which one account has arriving with soldiers under the British, and Levantine mujaddara, while the macaroni is usually put down to Egypt's Italian community. A traveller's account published in 1855 already describes a Suez breakfast of lentils, rice, ghee and onions under that name.
🌍
Africa. The structure repeats across most of the continent: one starch and one sauce. A grain or root is cooked stiff, torn or rolled by hand, and used to carry a stew of leaves, groundnut, okra or fish, usually from a shared bowl and with the right hand. UNESCO listings have followed that logic, inscribing couscous in 2020 as a shared Maghreb tradition and Ivorian attieke in 2024.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Egypt
Ta'ameya (Egyptian Falafel)Egypt’s own falafel, made from split fava beans instead of chickpeas, packed with herbs for a vivid green centre and fried to a shattering crisp.
KoshariCairo’s carb-on-carb street food: lentils, rice, and pasta under spiced tomato sauce and crispy onions.
Ful MedamesSlow-cooked fava beans mashed with cumin, lemon, and olive oil, the breakfast that has powered Egypt for millennia.
Browse all Egypt recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Oven.
Storing it: Best the day it is made. Wrap well and refresh in a warm oven, or freeze and reheat straight from frozen.
Make it a Egypt meal
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Cuisine
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Frequently asked questions
What is Om Ali?
A warm bread pudding of flaky pastry soaked in sweet spiced milk with nuts and coconut, Egypt's national dessert.
Where does Om Ali come from?
Om Ali is a Egyptian dish from Cairo, Egypt.
Can Om Ali be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Om Ali recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Om Ali safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Om Ali take to make?
About 45 minutes total (15 minutes prep, 30 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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