Griwech - Algerian Fried Pastry

Hi everyone,

I came across griwech, this intricate delicacy originating from Algeria, a few years back and ever since then I wanted to try to make them. Interestingly, there is a similar pastry that we eat around carnival season here, and this made me even more intrigued.

I went through a couple of recipes I found online and after combining certain elements and slightly modifying them, I ended up with something that I was really happy about.

One would think they are too beautiful to eat, but as a matter of fact, they are too tasty not to eat them all in one sitting. I hope you’ll like it 😊

Ingredients

For the dough:

• 500 g all-purpose flour
• 125 g melted butter
• 160 g warm water
• 1 large egg
• 10 g sugar
• 4 g (1 heaped teaspoon) baking powder
• 2 g (1/2 teaspoon) dried yeast
• 6 g (2 teaspoons) apple cider vinegar
• 25 g orange blossom water
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 4 g (3/4 teaspoon) salt
• 3-4 cardamom pods (optional)

For the syrup:

• 10 tablespoons honey and 5-6 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds

and / or

• 4-5 tablespoons orange marmalade and 2-3 tablespoons of chopped pistachios

 And also:

• corn starch for dusting
• vegetable oil for frying

Utensils:

• digital scale
• stand mixer with dough hook
• pasta roller
• bowls
• spoons
• pots
• mortar
• rolling pin
• sieve
• pasta cutter
• silicone brush

Add the flour into the mixing bowl, create a well in the middle, add half of the sugar, approximately half of the water and the dried yeast. Cover the top with a bit of flour and wait for about 10 minutes until the yeast starts working (indicated by cracks appearing on the top of the flour).

While waiting for the yeast to do its thing, melt the butter in the microwave or by simply placing it in a bowl and then into a saucepan in which you gently heat water.

In a mortar, crack the cardamom pods open and crush the seeds into fine powder. 

Add all the remaining ingredients of the dough: the rest of the sugar and the water, then the baking powder, melted butter the egg, the orange blossom water, the apple cider vinegar, the vanilla and cardamom, and finally the salt and mix using the dough hook attachment, until it is formed into a stretchy and shiny dough. (As it can be seen on the photos, the dough leaves the inside of the bowl clean and it is soft to the touch.)

Dump the dough onto a lightly floured countertop and form it into a ball.

Place it in a plastic bag and into the fridge for one hour. 

Unwrap the dough and place it on the countertop lightly dusted with cornstarch. Flatten it a bit with your hand.

Then switch to a rolling pin and gently roll out the dough into a 50 x 30 cm rectangle. While rolling the dough keep in mind to make sure that the dough does not stick to the surface, by lifting it from time to time and dusting lightly with corn starch whenever it proves necessary. 

Lightly dust the top of the dough with cornstarch, spread it with your hand, or a brush, into a thin even layer, getting rid of any excess.

Make a three-fold like you fold a letter: take one of the short sides and fold it into the middle of the rest of the dough, then fold the other end over.

Turn the dough 90 degrees (so that the short side is close to you) and repeat the full rolling – dusting- folding process two or three more times. This is to make the dough more uniform and easier to work with and to create layers in the dough (see the last photo), and also – in my experience – it helps to achieve a more rectangle-like rectangle.

Finally, cut the dough into two roughly equal parts, place one of them back into the plastic bag and into the fridge. 

Roll the other half of the dough into a 20 x 35 cm rectangle, then cut it into 3 approximately same sized parts. Place two of them aside and keep working on the third. Flatten it further to a width somewhat smaller than that of the pasta rolling machine.

Set up your pasta roller, and use it as you would when making regular pasta. Dust the pasta roller as well as the countertop with cornstarch. Run through the dough on the widest setting, then turn the dial to the next narrowest setting and roll the dough again. It does not have to extremely thin, I went down to setting 4 on my KitchenAid attachment. 

Lay the dough sheet so that the long side is close to you. With a pasta cutter straighten the short ends of the dough sheet. Now, starting from one of the short sides, make incisions (leaving 1.5 cm on top and bottom), parallel to that short side, about one cm apart from and parallel to each other. Make 12-15 incisions, then cut through the whole width of the dough, this will be shaped into one piece of pastry. Then carry on like this until you have dough sheet left. 

This is tricky for me to explain, I suggest to check the photos and the attached video to get a clear understanding.

Take one piece of dough sheet with the cuttings and fold one half over the other. Seal the edge with your fingers. Then fold it over once more and seal the edges. Now, pull apart the strips of dough close to the middle (half of the strips go left, the other half to the right), grab one end and tuck it in the hole, then pull it out thus making a twist. Pinch the ends together. 

Now it is the time to shallow fry these beauties.

Pour vegetable oil (or other neutral flavored oil) into a pot so that it is about 2-3 cm high. Heat it until it reaches about 150 Celsius.

Gently lower the shaped dough into the pot (2 or 3 at a time depending on the size of the pot, they should fit comfortably) and fry them gently, turning them occasionally and also, pouring oil on the top part with the help of a spoon.

Fry until golden brown then place them on paper towel to absorb excess oil. 

As I read, griwech is traditionally are dipped in honey and sprinkled with toasted sesame. For this purpose, heat honey slightly in the microwave so that it becomes really runny, then you can either dip the griwech into the honey or apply honey with a silicone brush. Toast sesame seeds in a dry pan until fragrant, then sprinkle them with sesame seeds.

Since I had fresh, homemade orange marmalade on hand, as an alternative I tried the same process with orange marmalade and pistachios and that also worked pretty well. 

Now all you have to do is enjoy these crispy little treats!