Ma'amoul

Each one is pressed into a carved wooden mould and knocked out, which is what prints the pattern and what sets the size.

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

Ingredients

the dough

• 500 g fine semolina
• 150 g plain flour
• 250 g butter, melted
• 3 tablespoons caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon mahlab, ground
• 2 tablespoons orange blossom water
• 2 tablespoons rose water
• 1 teaspoon fast-action dried yeast
• 100 ml warm milk, roughly

the date filling

• 300 g date paste
• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

the nut filling

• 200 g pistachios, coarsely ground
• 80 g caster sugar
• 2 tablespoons orange blossom water

to finish

• icing sugar, for dusting

Method

1. EACH ONE IS PRESSED INTO A CARVED WOODEN MOULD AND KNOCKED OUT. The mould is not decoration and it is not optional in any meaningful sense: it prints the pattern that says which filling is inside, it compresses the dough so the cookie holds together, and it fixes the size so a batch is uniform. A filled ball is pressed firmly into the carved hollow, levelled off, and the mould rapped sharply against the edge of the table so the cookie drops out pattern-side up. Shaped by hand and scored with a fork instead, they are perfectly edible and noticeably squat, uneven, and short of the pattern that is half of what the thing is.
2. THE SEMOLINA DOUGH IS RUBBED WITH MELTED BUTTER AND RESTED OVERNIGHT. Two hundred and fifty grams of melted butter worked through the semolina and flour with the fingers until it looks like damp sand, then covered and left twelve hours. The semolina drinks the butter over that time and the dough changes completely -- from gritty to smooth and pliable. Rested an hour it is sandy and cracks in the mould.
3. THE LIQUID GOES IN THE MORNING AFTER, A LITTLE AT A TIME. Milk, yeast and the blossom waters, added only until the dough just holds together when squeezed. Too wet and it sticks in the mould and tears coming out.
4. THE MOULD IS NOT FLOURED. A well-used wooden mould releases on its own because the dough is so rich in butter. Flour fills the carving and blurs the pattern within a few cookies.
5. THEY ARE BAKED PALE AND MUST NOT COLOUR. 170°C for fifteen to eighteen minutes, until barely set and still almost white on top. A browned ma'amoul is dry and the pattern disappears into the colour. They firm as they cool, so they come out feeling underdone.
6. THE TWO FILLINGS GET DIFFERENT PATTERNS, AND THAT IS THE POINT OF HAVING TWO MOULDS. Date in the round shallow one, pistachio in the domed or oval one, so a plate of them can be read without biting. Whatever the convention, being consistent within a batch is what matters.
7. The melted butter rubbed into the semolina, flour, sugar and ground mahlab with the FINGERS until it looks like damp sand.
8. Covered and RESTED 12 HOURS.
9. The date paste worked with the softened butter and cinnamon. The pistachios mixed with the 80 g sugar and blossom water.
10. The yeast stirred into the warm milk with the blossom and rose waters, and added to the dough A LITTLE AT A TIME until it JUST holds together when squeezed.
11. Walnut-sized pieces taken, hollowed in the palm, filled, and closed into a smooth ball.
12. Each ball PRESSED FIRMLY into an UNFLOURED carved wooden mould, levelled off.
13. The mould RAPPED SHARPLY against the table edge so the cookie drops out PATTERN-SIDE UP.
14. Set on lined trays and baked at 170°C for 15 to 18 MINUTES, until BARELY set and still almost WHITE.
15. COOLED COMPLETELY on the trays -- they firm as they cool.
16. TESTED: the pattern should be sharp and the cookie pale. A blurred pattern means the mould was floured or the dough too wet.
17. Dusted with icing sugar. 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 Lebanon · All recipes