Croquet for Eid Ad'ha

Croquet is a quite filling baked, biscotti-looking, cake. it goes well with coffee with milk, especially for breakfast. Many Algerians love to make and eat it quite often in the north.

To do that you need the following ingredients:

• 2 eggs. 
• 3/4 glass of sugar (I usually measure with a yogurt pot so I fill it all up.). 
• 3/4 glass of oil.
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. 
• 1/2 sachet of baking powder (levure chimique) 
• 1/2 tablespoon lemon zest. 
• Flour (just enough to obtain a soft non sticky dough) 

Preheat your oven. 

The method: 

In a bow, mix the sugar and eggs very well. Then, add the oil and mix more. 

After that add the vanilla, baking powder and lemon zest and mix everything together. 

Now start adding your flour little by little while mixing until you get a nice soft dough. It should be soft not dry and not very sticky. 

Dust yo hands and an oven tray with flour and flatten then boll of dough to create an oval shaped cake. 

Glaze the top of the dough with egg yolk using a brush to coat it well 

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PS: About glazing: 

If you like your croquet to shine and have a beautiful mahogany glaze just coat the surface with egg yolk. I sometimes like to add a few drops of milk to it to make it a little runny. Also I sometimes add a tiny bit of coffee to give it a nicer smell and flavour, but it won't be as shiny) 

Use a fork to scratch the surface to form nice parallel line. (see picture) 

Chuck it in the oven 180 degrees (no need to cover it). you can either put it in the middle rack or the bottom one, but NOT the top one. 

Tip 1: After about 25 minutes it should double in size and you should be able to check it by "stabbing" it with the tip of a knife (or a toothpick). there should be no sticky uncooked dough on the knife/toothpick they should be dry. 

Tip 2: take it out after 30-35 minutes cut it and return it to the oven on the TOP rack to give it more colour but WATCH OUT! you need to leave it for NO more than 2-3 minutes. 

take it out and let it cool before serving!
Bsahetkom, Enjoy, Bon apetit. 

Za xx