Recipe
🍰 DESSERT
Halawet el Jibn
Soft semolina-and-cheese dough rolled around clotted cream and drenched in syrup, a Damascene sweet-cheese specialty.
Syrian · advanced · serves 8
prep 40 min · cook 20 min
~657 cal · 19g protein · 58g carbs · 40g fat · 2g fiber · 42g sugars · 23g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Halawet el jibn, sweetness of cheese, is a jewel of Syrian pastry, especially associated with the sweet shops of Damascus and Hama. It is a soft, stretchy sheet of sweetened cheese and wrapped around a rich cream filling, an unusual and delightful marriage of savoury and sweet.
A dough of soft, unsalted cheese and fine is cooked until smooth and pliable, then spread thin, filled with ashta (thick clotted cream), and rolled or folded. Doused in a rose or orange-blossom syrup and scattered with crushed pistachios and dried rose petals, it is delicate, milky, and floral, meant to be eaten fresh while the cheese is still soft.
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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 8
1 cup fine
1 lb soft unsalted cheese (akkawi or mozzarella)
1 1/2 cups clotted cream (ashta)
Hard to find? mascarpone whipped with a spoonful of thick cream - ashta is milk clotted fresh; mascarpone gives the same soft richness with less of its milky perfume
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tbsp orange blossom or rose water
1/4 tsp mastic gum, crushed with a pinch of sugar
1 tbsp dried rose petals or rose petal jam, to finish
1/3 cup crushed pistachios
Instructions
1
Boil part of the sugar with water and blossom water into a light syrup and cool.
2
Whisk the rest of the sugar, the semolina, the crushed mastic and water together over medium heat, stirring without stopping, until the mixture thickens; this happens in about two minutes.
✎ Chef’s note
The semolina is cooked first, on its own with the sugar and water. Only once it has thickened does the cheese go in. Melting cheese and semolina together from cold, as is sometimes written, gives a stringy mess rather than a dough.
3
Turn the heat low, tip in the shredded cheese and the blossom water, and stir vigorously until it comes together into one smooth, stretchy mass that pulls away from the pan, like choux paste. Take it off the heat and let it cool just enough to handle.
✎ Chef’s note
If you can get akkawi, soak it in several changes of cold water first to draw the salt out. Mozzarella is the practical substitute and melts to the same elastic dough.
4
Roll the still-warm dough between two sheets of clingfilm or parchment into a rectangle a few millimetres thick, pipe a line of ashta along the edge nearest you, and use the film to roll it into a tight log, sealing the seam underneath.
✎ Chef’s note
Work while it is warm; cold dough cracks. Rolling it between two sheets is what keeps it from sticking to everything, and using the film to roll gives an even log without stretching it.
5
Chill the logs at least an hour so they firm up.
6
Cut into pieces about 4cm long, wiping the knife between cuts, arrange them on a plate, drizzle with the cooled syrup and scatter with crushed pistachios and rose petals.
✎ Chef’s note
Go gently with the syrup and put the rest on the table. The rolls are meant to be barely sweet in themselves, with the syrup and the pistachio doing the work. Halawet el jibn is associated above all with Hama in Syria, where one account credits its invention to the great-grandfather of the Salloura confectionery family in the 1870s, though Homs and Tripoli both make their own claim on it.
Damascene sweet-shop tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Damascus. Damascus is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on Earth, and its mezze table shows it: hummus, muhammara, stuffed vine leaves, and kibbeh in many forms. Pomegranate molasses, tahini, and seven-spice give Syrian cooking its sweet-sour depth.
🗺️
Syria. Aleppo and Damascus are not interchangeable. Muhammara, red pepper and walnut pounded with pomegranate molasses, is Aleppine; so is the kibbeh made with sour cherries, and so is the seven-spice baharat that goes into it. Aleppo pepper is a named cultivar, halaby, sun-dried and rubbed with oil rather than simply dried, which is why it is fruity rather than sharp.
🌍
Asia. Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, and its food spans the delicate seasonality of Japanese washoku, the chili-fired curries of India and Thailand, and the wheat-and-lamb traditions of Central Asia. Rice, noodles, soy, and fermentation recur across its regions, while ancient spice routes and religious traditions shaped distinct grammars of flavor. Whether from a street-cart wok or a monastery kitchen, eating is deeply communal and ritual-rich.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Syria
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BalilaWarm chickpeas dressed with cumin, lemon, garlic, and olive oil, a simple Damascene breakfast.
Chicken ShawarmaMarinated spiced chicken roasted and shaved into flatbread with garlic sauce and pickles, the Levant's great street lunch.
Browse all Syria recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Whisk.
Storing it: Store in an airtight container. Most keep 2 to 3 days at room temperature, and longer refrigerated.
Make it a Syria meal
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Frequently asked questions
What is Halawet el Jibn?
Soft semolina-and-cheese dough rolled around clotted cream and drenched in syrup, a Damascene sweet-cheese specialty.
Where does Halawet el Jibn come from?
Halawet el Jibn is a Syrian dish from Damascus, Syria.
Can Halawet el Jibn be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Halawet el Jibn 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 Halawet el Jibn 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 Halawet el Jibn take to make?
About 60 minutes total (40 minutes prep, 20 minutes cooking), serving 8.
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