Makroudh

The filled rope is cut on the diagonal, which is where the diamond shape and the name come from.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains honey.

Ingredients

the dough

• 600 g coarse semolina
• 180 ml olive oil
• 180 ml warm water, roughly
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt

the filling

• 500 g date paste
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground cloves
• zest of 1 orange

to fry and finish

• 1 litre sunflower oil
• 400 g honey
• 2 tablespoons orange blossom water
• sesame seeds

Method

1. THE FILLED ROPE IS CUT ON THE DIAGONAL, which is where the diamond shape and the name come from. The dough is rolled into a long flat strip, a rope of date paste laid down its centre, the dough folded over and sealed into a long filled log, the top patterned with a makroudh pincer or a fork, and then the log is cut with the knife held at an angle -- which turns a rectangular log into a row of diamonds. Cut straight across you get neat rectangles and a perfectly nice pastry that nobody would call makroudh.
2. THE SEMOLINA IS RUBBED WITH THE OIL AND RESTED BEFORE ANY WATER GOES IN. A hundred and eighty millilitres of olive oil worked through six hundred grams of coarse semolina with the fingers until it looks like damp sand, then left an hour. The semolina drinks the oil and the texture changes from gritty to smooth. Water added at the same time as the oil gives a dough that is simultaneously greasy and crumbly and cracks as it is folded.
3. IT IS COARSE SEMOLINA AND NO WHEAT FLOUR AT ALL. The slightly sandy, crumbling bite is the whole character of the pastry; wheat flour makes it chewy and ordinary.
4. THE WATER GOES IN LAST AND ONLY UNTIL IT JUST HOLDS. A little at a time. This dough should barely come together -- it is pressed into shape rather than kneaded, and a wet dough will not hold the pattern or the diagonal cut.
5. THEY ARE FRIED AND THEN DIPPED IN WARM HONEY, NOT SUGAR SYRUP. Deep-fried at 160°C until deep gold, drained, and then dropped into warm honey loosened with blossom water for a minute. Honey gives the particular dark sticky coat and the flavour; a sugar syrup gives something lighter and glassier that is a different sweet.
6. THE OIL IS COOL -- 160°C -- AND THEY TAKE LONGER THAN EXPECTED. Eight or nine minutes. These are thick and the semolina needs to cook through; hotter oil darkens the outside while the middle stays raw and sandy.
7. THEY ARE DRAINED ON A RACK AFTER THE HONEY, NOT ON PAPER. Paper sticks to honey and tears off in pieces. A rack over a tray, and the honey that drips is poured back into the pot.
8. The semolina, baking powder and salt mixed and the OLIVE OIL rubbed through with the fingers until it looks like damp sand.
9. Covered and RESTED 1 HOUR.
10. The date paste worked with the 3 tablespoons of olive oil, cinnamon, cloves and orange zest, and rolled into long ropes.
11. The warm water added to the semolina A LITTLE AT A TIME until it JUST holds together.
12. The dough pressed out into long flat strips about 8 cm wide.
13. A date rope laid down the centre, the dough folded over and SEALED into a long filled log.
14. The top patterned with a pincer or a fork.
15. CUT ON THE DIAGONAL into diamonds about 4 cm.
16. The oil heated to 160°C and the diamonds DEEP-FRIED 8 to 9 MINUTES, to a deep gold.
17. Drained, then dropped into the honey warmed with the blossom water for 1 MINUTE.
18. Lifted onto a RACK over a tray and scattered with sesame.
19. TESTED: broken open, the semolina should be cooked through and not sandy in the middle, and the shape should be a clear diamond.
20. Keeps 2 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 Tunisia · All recipes