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Kahk

The filling is agameya, a cooked paste of honey, ghee and nuts, made and set before the dough is touched.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (ghee), dairy (milk), honey.

Ingredients

the agameya filling

the dough

to finish

Method

  1. THE FILLING IS AGAMEYA, A COOKED PASTE OF HONEY, GHEE AND NUTS, made and set before the dough is touched. Honey and ghee are heated together, flour is stirred in and cooked until it darkens and smells of biscuit, then nuts, sesame and cinnamon, and the whole thing is spread out to cool and firm. Cooking the flour is the part that matters: raw flour in a honey paste tastes chalky and the filling stays sticky and runs out of the biscuit in the oven. Cooked, it sets to something fudge-like that can be rolled into little balls and enclosed, and it stays put.
  2. THE AGAMEYA IS MADE FIRST AND COOLED COMPLETELY. An hour at least, spread thin on a plate. Warm filling softens the ghee-rich dough as it is wrapped and the biscuits lose their shape.
  3. THE GHEE FOR THE DOUGH IS MELTED AND WARM, AND IT IS RUBBED IN AND RESTED. Three hundred grams into six hundred of flour, worked through with the fingers until it looks like damp sand, then left to stand. That rest is what makes kahk short and crumbling rather than hard; the flour drinks the fat and the texture changes completely. An hour is the minimum and overnight is better.
  4. THERE IS YEAST IN IT BUT IT IS NOT A BREAD. Seven grams, which gives a slight lift and a faint ferment rather than a rise. The dough is proved briefly after shaping and then baked -- treated as a bread and proved to double, the biscuits come out tough.
  5. MAHLAB AND MASTIC ARE WHAT MAKE IT TASTE LIKE ITSELF. A teaspoon of ground mahlab and half of mastic. Without them these are pleasant shortbread biscuits; with them they taste unmistakably of this occasion.
  6. THEY ARE BAKED PALE AND MUST NOT COLOUR. 170°C for fifteen to eighteen minutes, until barely set and still almost white. A browned kahk is dry, and the icing sugar sits oddly on a coloured surface.
  7. THE ICING SUGAR GOES ON WHILE THEY ARE STILL WARM, AND THEN AGAIN COLD. Dusted warm so the first coat clings and partly melts in, then again once cold for the thick white finish. One coat on cold biscuits falls off in the tin.
  8. THE AGAMEYA: the honey and ghee heated together, the flour stirred in and cooked, stirring, until it DARKENS and smells of biscuit, about 5 MINUTES.
  9. The walnuts, sesame and cinnamon stirred in. Spread thin on a plate and COOLED COMPLETELY, at least 1 HOUR.
  10. THE DOUGH: the flour, milk powder, sesame, mahlab, mastic and salt mixed, then the WARM melted ghee RUBBED IN with the fingers until it looks like damp sand.
  11. Covered and RESTED at least 1 HOUR, or overnight.
  12. The yeast and sugar stirred into the warm milk and worked in A LITTLE AT A TIME until the dough JUST comes together.
  13. The cooled agameya rolled into small balls.
  14. Walnut-sized pieces of dough hollowed in the palm, one agameya ball enclosed, and rolled smooth. Flattened slightly and patterned with a kahk stamp or a fork.
  15. Set on lined trays and proved 30 MINUTES ONLY.
  16. Baked at 170°C for 15 to 18 MINUTES, until BARELY set and still almost WHITE.
  17. Dusted with icing sugar while WARM, then AGAIN when COLD.
  18. TESTED: the biscuit should crumble and the filling should be set, not runny. A runny filling means the flour was not cooked.
  19. Keeps 3 weeks in a tin.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Egypt · All recipes