Ma’moul means “filled” or “stuffed” in Arabic, and these tender, crumbly pastries are stuffed with dates or nuts.
Traditionally, they’re made in special wooden molds that imprint the pastry with individual designs – so you know if your ma’amoul is stuffed with walnuts, dates, or pistachios, without having to take a bite.
People all over the western east eat them at holiday times: Moslems during the nights of Ramadan, and Christian Arabs at Easter time. Jews of Egyptian and Lebanese origin eat ma’amoul stuffed with nuts at Purim because tradition says that Queen Esther, heroine of the Purim story, ate nothing but nuts, seeds, and fruit from the day she entered Ahasuerus’s palace. And as she hid her Jewish origin, so the dainty pastry hides the rich nut filling inside.
Lacking the special mold, you can simply roll walnut-sized balls of pastry, drop a teaspoon of filling in the center of each round, and gather the edges up towards the top, pressing it shut to hide the filling. Here’s the recipe.
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup semolina
2 sticks salted butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon orange blossom water or 1/2 teaspoon rose water
2 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup chopped nuts (pistachios, walnuts, or almonds)
powdered sugar for dusting
2 tablespoons milk
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
In a medium bowl, combine flour and semolina. Set aside.
In a smaller bowl, beat together butter for 30-45 seconds. Slowly add in flour mixture until combined. Stir in milk, allspice, and orange blossom water. Roll dough into 12 pieces.
In a small bowl, combine nuts and sugar. Set aside.
Grab your dough and push into 2 inch circles onto parchment lined cookie sheet. Place about 1 teaspoon of nut mixture on top of dough. Fold and press dough together to seal the filling. Repeat with remaining dough and nut mixture.
Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.
[…] East… be it cumin-scented, crunchy falafel or the fragrance of rose-water in pastries like ma’amoul, it’s worth organizing space in your kitchen for the ingredients listed […]
delicious!
[…] Ma’amoul Cookies […]
[…] fresh – but must be frozen to bring out their sweetness and moisture. Try ma’moul a traditional Arabic pastry stuffed with dates. Just substitute chopped dates for the nuts in the […]
[…] lovely Arabic pastry for Ramadan break-fast or any time, is date-stuffed ma’moul cookies. Substitute dates for the nuts in the recipe, for dates are said to be the first food Muhammad ate […]
Lovely recipe and pics. Do you know where you can get Maamoul moulds in Dubai?
[…] Ma’moul Cookies […]
These look great. I am baking cookies tonight. The easiest thing in the world and there is practically no waste… like plastic boxes…
These look great. I am baking cookies tonight. The easiest thing in the world and there is practically no waste… like plastic boxes…
RECIPE for Ma'amoul Cookies, a Tender Arabian Pastry Delight …: Ma'moul means filled or stuffed in Arabic, and t… http://bit.ly/cA5vRd
Make Arabian mamoul cookies:
http://www.greenprophet.com/2010/01/31/16663/recipe-for-maamoul-cookies-a-tender-arabian-pastry-delight/
News:: RECIPE for Ma'amoul Cookies, a Tender Arabian Pastry Delight http://bit.ly/dqrBvq