Fekkas (فقاص)

Everything here turns on the second bake. The first bake sets the log so it can be sliced; the second bake dries each piece until it snaps clean under the teeth and keeps for days in a tin. Skip that patience and you don't have fekkas, you have a soft cake pretending.

Fekkas belongs beside tea, to Eid trays, wedding plates, and the afternoon when someone knocks and you want to put something real on the table. The anise comes first in the nose, then toasted sesame, almond, raisin, and a little orange blossom if your house likes it. Cut the slices thin, but not so thin they break in your hand. La balance est dans les yeux, the scale is in the eyes.

Make more than you think. Fekkas is made for keeping, carrying, and offering, one tin on the shelf and one plate already open. Une table, c'est une porte qu'on laisse ouverte, a table is a door you leave open.