Cream Maamoul
This is a Lebanese stretched maamoul filled with ashta: a quick ashta is made from fine semolina and milk with orange blossom water and pistachios, then a dough is prepared from medium semolina, flour, sugar, ghee, and milk with baking soda and yeast. Two layers are rolled out with the ashta filling in between, then baked at 200°C for 20 to 25 minutes and drizzled with cold syrup after coming out of the oven.
A Lebanese maamoul sweet filled with cream.
Like filled cookie-like pastries.
Ingredients
- 2 cups (300 grams) Sugar
- 1 cup (200 ml) Water
- 1 Slice of lemon
- 1 cup (150 grams) Fine semolina (farikha flour)
- 1 liter Milk
- 2 drops Concentrated orange blossom water
- 3 tbsp Crushed Aleppo pistachios
- 2 tbsp Sugar
- 2 cups (300 grams) Medium semolina
- 1 1/2 cups (150 grams) Flour
- 1/2 cup (60 grams) Sugar
- 1 tsp Baking soda
- 1 tsp Yeast
- 1/2 cup 2 tbsp Ghee
- 150 ml Milk
- 1 heaped teaspoon Mahleb
Instructions
- To prepare the syrup, place the sugar, water, and lemon slice in a pot over the heat until the syrup boils, then leave it to cool.
- To prepare the ashta, place the fine semolina and milk in a pot over the heat, stirring continuously until the mixture thickens and becomes like ashta.
- After removing the ashta from the pot, add 2 drops of orange blossom water and 3 tablespoons of crushed Aleppo pistachios, stirring well.
- To prepare the maamoul dough, combine the medium semolina, flour, sugar, baking soda, and yeast in a bowl.
- Add the ghee to the dough bowl and rub the mixture well by hand until the grains absorb the fat.
- Add the milk to the dough bowl gradually until the dough comes together with a texture that is neither soft nor firm.
- Divide the maamoul dough into two equal portions on the work surface.
- Line a tray with plastic wrap or cover it with plastic wrap, then spread the first layer of dough in it and gently roll it out until it covers the tray in a thin layer.
- Chill the tray in the refrigerator until the first dough layer firms up.
- Roll out the second dough layer in a bowl or on the work surface with a light brushing of ghee, then set it aside for the top layer.
- Place the cold, set ashta over the first dough layer in the tray, leaving the edges free of ashta.
- Cover the ashta with the second dough layer, then remove the plastic wrap from the top.
- Trim the excess around the edges with a blunt knife, then smooth the top with a little syrup or ghee as needed.
- Score the top with a knife in shallow lines only, without reaching the bottom layer of dough.
- Prick the tray several times with a knife around the edges and across the surface to release air.
- Bake the tray in an oven preheated to 200°C, with top and bottom heat on, until it takes on a lightly dark color, about 20 to 25 minutes.
- Remove the tray from the oven while hot, then pour the cold syrup over it using a brush or directly, as desired.
- Once cooled, cut the maamoul into pieces and sprinkle with crushed Aleppo pistachios when serving.