Simple Eid Cookies (ka’ak) Recipe
1 cup ghee (clarified butter)
½ cup warm milk
½ teaspoon rose water
2 1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon sesame
1/8 teaspoon salt
¼ kg Turkish delight (lokum, malban)
Powdered sugar
Method
- shake ghee, milk and rose water until well combined.
- Sift flour and baking powder in a bowl, add sesame and salt.
- Add flour mixture to ghee mixture, knead until smooth.
- Preheat oven to (180 – 350) degrees.
- Form dough into walnut sized balls
- Shape Turkish delight into tiny balls.
- Make a hole in the center of the dough using your finger.
- Place the Turkish delight balls in the center of each ball.
- Seal the dough up over it and press edges together.
- Flatten each ball a little and make a design using a fork or (monkash) or a cookie mold.
- Place cookies at least 1 inch apart onto cookie sheets.
- Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes or until lightly browned.
- Cool completely on a wire rack.
- Dust with confectioners (powder) sugar.
Maamoul with Walnuts Recipe
Difficulty: Medium
Prep Time: 45 minutes
Ingredients:
Dough:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup semolina flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup milk
2 sticks butter at room temperature
1 tsp orange blossom water
Filling:
1 cup ground walnuts
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp orange blossom water
8 medjool dates, pitted
1 tsp orange blossom water
vegetable oil
powdered sugar
Preparation:
Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
In a large bowl, combine flour, semolina and baking powder, mix well. Next, add butter, milk and orange blossom water to dry ingredients and combine until dough is formed.
In a food processor, blend walnuts until fine and crumbly, pour walnuts into bowl and add sugar, cinnamon and orange blossom water. Next, put the dates into the food processor and blend until it is formed into a fine ball, remove and add orange blossom water, set aside.
To form maamoul cookies, roll dough into balls, smaller than golf balls, poke an indent into the ball and place some of the filling inside, close the opening until all of the filling is concealed. Next, wipe down the maamoul mold with some vegetable oil so that dough does not stick, press ball into the maamoul mold and then tap our the cookie by hitting the mold on the side. Place the cookies on a non-stick baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes, until bottom of the cookie is light brown. Remove cookies and let cool completely, dust cookies completely with powdered sugar and store in an air tight container for up to 2 weeks.
Pistachio Maamoul Recipe
Ingredients
- For the dough:
- 9 cups semolina or 1500 g
- 1½ cups butter or 300 g, melted
- 1½ cups ghee or 300 g, melted
- 1 cup caster sugar or 200 g
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon ground mahlab
- 1 teaspoon yeast
- ¾ cup rose water or 190 ml
- ¼ cup blossom water or 60 ml
- 3½ cups pistachio nuts or 500 g
- 1 tablespoon blossom water
- 2 tablespoons rose water
- 1 tin NESTLÉ® Sweetened Condensed Milk or 397 g
- ½ cup caster sugar or 100 g
- In a bowl, combine semolina, butter, ghee, sugar, nutmeg, mahlab, and yeast. Mix the ingredients well then cover and set aside for at least 4 hours.
- Pin an electric mixer, blend the pistachio until they are completely crushed. Remove and place in a bowl.
- Mix blossom water, rose water and NESTLÉ® Sweetened Condensed Milk until all ingredients are well combined. Cover and place in fridge for 1 hour.
- Add rose water and blossom water to the dried mixture, knead by hands until the dough starts to hold together or forms a paste. If necessary, add a small amount of rose water.
- Remove a small piece of dough and flatten it with your hands and place a teaspoonful of the filling. Close carefully to form a ball.
- Press the stuffed dough into a wooden maamoul mold to form a pattern on the upper side of the dough.
- Tap out onto an cookie sheet that is not greased and bake in a 185c for 15-20 minutes or until lightly colored but not browned.
Kahk with Dates Recipe
Ingredients:
- 2 cups samn balady
- 1 cup milk
- 4 1/2 cups flour, all purpose
- 2 tablespoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon instant yeas
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 tea spoon ground ginger
- sesame seeds
- Heat the samn balady (Gee) until almost boiling.
- Add the baking powder and the spices to the flour.
- Carefully add the flour to the hot samn balady (Gee) and stir with a wooden spoon.
- Keep stirring and stirring and stirring.
- When the mixture cools down a little, but is still warm, (ie you can knead it with your hands without causing permanent damage), add the instant yeast to the milk with a teaspoon of sugar, then stir gently into the dough.
- Knead it for a short while, cover and let it rest. (Officially you should shape the kahk now and let it rest later).
- After an hour or so you can start shaping the dough with your hands into little balls and then flatten them.
- You can add nuts, agwa (date spread), or other filling when you are making it into balls.
- Put them in a cookie tray and let them rest for a little.
- Then put them in a preheated oven (345 F), and watch them. Usually 15 minutes is enough.
- Take them out, wait until they cool and sprinkle with powdered sugar just before eating.
Ingredients:
2 cups semolina flour
1 1/2 cups shortening
1 cup boiling water
3/4 cup white sugar
2 cups ground walnuts
1 teaspoon rose water
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar for dusting (optional)
Preparation:
- Place the semolina flour into a medium bowl, and cut in shortening using a pastry blender or a fork. Pour in boiling water, and mix to form a solid dough. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead for a minute or two to be sure the dough is well blended. Cover dough and let stand for at least one hour, or as long as overnight.
- In a medium bowl, mix together the sugar, ground nuts, and rose water so that the mixture is uniform. Set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets, or line with parchment paper. Knead dough again briefly, and form into walnut sized balls. Make a hole in the center using your finger. Fill the hole with the nut mixture, and seal the dough up over it. Gently form into balls or crescents, or make designs into the dough using a fork. Place cookies at least 1 inch apart onto the prepared cookie sheets.
- Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, or until lightly browned. Dust with confectioners sugar while still warm if desired.
- Almonds or unsalted pistachios may be used for filling also. If rose water is not available in your area, you can use 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon for flavoring.
- There are many variations for shaping these cookies including rectangles rolled into mini jelly rolls, or shape 3 inch rounds from balls, place filling in the center, and fold the sides over to cover, and seal.
- 1 1/2 # semolina
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 1/4 # pound butter
- boiling water
- 2 # fresh dates, pitted and pureed
- Combine the semolina and the sugar in a large bowl, mix thoroughly. Melt 1# pound of the butter and let it come to a boil . Gradually add the butter to the semolina mixture. Knead well. Set aside in a sealed airtight container at least one hour before using.
- When you are ready to use the dough add small amounts of boiling water to make the dough soft and pliable. Wear rubber gloves to protect hands from the boiling water. Combine the dates with the 1/4 # pound of butter (it is better to let this soften first). Knead together until they are well blended. Mold the pastry in small ball about 2 inches in diameter. Hollow out the center of the ball using your finger. Form a shell about 1/4 inch thick.
- Fill the hollow with the date mixture. Seal the top by pressing the dough together. Flatten lightly between your palms to form a pie shape. Use the tines of a fork to make a design around the top.
- Place on a baking sheet. Cook in a pre heated oven 450 degrees F or 230 degrees C for 20 minutes or until light golden brown. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Store in sealed airtight containers.
- 2 cups smeed (semolina)
- 1 cup boiling water
- 1 1/2 cups samneh (or other shortening)
- 1 tsp. ma'ez zahr (orange blossom essence)
- 1 tsp. rose water
- 3/4 cup fine sugar
- 1 1/4 cup crushed walnuts
- Make dough of smeed, samneh and boiling water. Knead well together. Cover tightly and leave overnight.
- On the second day knead again thoroughly and form into small balls. Hollow out their centers. Fill the hollow with mixture of sugar, nuts and flavorings.
- Press the dough back over the filling. Press each cookie onto a buttered baking pan and flatten and decorate with the tines of a fork. Or, shape the dough in the carved molds made in Lebanon especially for this purpose. Bake in moderate oven until lightly browned. Dust liberally with powdered sugar while hot.
More Middle Eastern Dessert Recipes:
Chocolate Drops and Figs Cookies
Almond Sesame Balls
Dates and Walnuts Maamoul
Pistachio Maamoul
Kahk Recipe
Halawet El-Riz Recipe
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