Ingredients:
Dough:
5 cups plain flour
½ cup of light olive oil
cold water – use as much as needed to make the dough
Custard:
3 cups semolina
3 cups sugar
71/2 cups water
rose water to taste
icing sugar for dusting
Note: This is a big quantity and will make approximately 80-100 shamishi depending on the size. You can half the recipe if you wish. Shamishi do not freeze well, so they are best eaten within 2-3 days of making them. Prepare your dough and custard from the day before and refrigerate. It will make it easier and quicker when you are making them.

Method:
Dough:
1. Mix all ingredients and add as much water as needed to make a soft dough. If the dough is a bit tough, add another 30 ml of water at a time and keep kneading till it softens.
2. Once the dough is done, put it in a bowl and pour some light olive oil over it. Refrigerate till needed.
Custard:
1. In a heavy based saucepan over low heat, add your water, sugar, semolina and a little of the rose water.
2. Keep stirring constantly (do not walk away). Once the sugar dissolves, you will also notice the semolina swelling and doubling in size. Keep stirring until you notice that the mixture is quite thick and not as easy to stir. Turn your heat off, taste and add more rose water if it needs it.
3. Pour into a large glass or ceramic baking dish and allow mixture to cool down.
4. Refrigerate overnight.

Assembly:
1. Take a portion of your dough, roughly the size of your two fists, and roll on a clean bench top.
2. Use the olive oil in the bowl to keep dough moist and non stick on your bench top.
3. Roll dough into a sausage of approximately 6-7 cm in diameter.
4. Cut the sausage dough into roughly 1 cm portions.
5. Take each portion, wet it with more of the oil in the bowl if needed, and roll out into a square of approximately 13-15 cm in diameter. If you use a pasta machine, use less oil as it will be slippery through the machine and use flour instead.
6. Put 1 full tablespoon of the custard into the centre of the dough and spread it out slightly.
7. Take each point of your square and bring it to the middle, thus covering the custard totally and creating a little pillow. Overlap the edges slightly together, so the custard is held inside. Repeat until all dough and custard is used. If you have leftover dough, do not throw away. You can freeze it up to a month and use at a later date.
8. Once all done, heat a generous amount of light olive oil into a large frying pan. Olive oil should cover the shamishi whilst cooking. Once oil is heated, drop 4-5 pillows at a time and cook till golden.
9. Remove from the pan and place on a platter and whilst still hot, sprinkle icing sugar from a sieve over them. Allow to cool and enjoy.