Maamoul Cookies
This is a filled Syrian maamoul recipe made with a dough of white flour, farik flour, ghee, and superfine sugar. The dough is rested, then enriched with syrup and dissolved yeast. The fillings described are pistachios with syrup, orange blossom water, and ghee, and date paste with ghee. After shaping, the cookies are baked at 250 degrees for 6 to 8 minutes, until rosy in color.
A recipe for maamoul, traditional filled cookies from the Levant.
Like filled shortbread cookies.
Shape the cookies carefully so the filling stays enclosed during baking.
Ingredients
- white flour
- ghee or butter
- sugar
- date paste or dried dates
- rose water or orange blossom water
- milk or water
- powdered sugar
- half a kilo white flour
- half a kilo farik flour
- half a kilo ghee
- half a kilo pistachios
- half a kilo date paste
- half a cup superfine sugar
- half a cup water
- 1 cup syrup
- 1 tablespoon ghee for the filling
- 2 tablespoons orange blossom water
- a pinch sugar
- 1 teaspoon yeast
Instructions
- In the dough bowl, sift the white flour and farik flour, then mix the two flours well.
- In the dough bowl, make a well in the center, then add the ghee to the flour.
- In the dough bowl, add the superfine sugar while kneading until the dough becomes ointment-like.
- In the dough bowl, cover the dough and let it rest for 2 hours in the refrigerator, or at room temperature if the weather is not hot.
- In the filling bowl, coarsely crush the pistachios, then add about 2 tablespoons water, one-quarter cup syrup, 1 tablespoon ghee, 2 tablespoons orange blossom water, and a pinch of sugar. Knead until the filling holds together.
- In the filling bowl, leave it in the refrigerator until it firms up further.
- In the filling bowl, mix the date paste with 2 tablespoons ghee and knead until it holds together, then shape it into rounds to make filling easier.
- In the yeast bowl, dissolve the yeast with a little sugar, half a cup of water, and 1 teaspoon yeast.
- In the dough bowl, add the 1 cup of syrup to the rested dough, then add the yeast and water, and knead only with your fingertips without working it too much.
- In the dough bowl, return the dough to the refrigerator for half an hour.
- In the shaping bowl and on a flour-dusted work surface, divide the dough and pistachio filling into pieces of about 20 grams for the dough and about 15 grams for the filling, and also divide the date paste into suitable pieces.
- On the work surface, shape the dough into a small cup, then place the filling in the center and close the dough around it.
- In the maamoul mold, dust with flour only the first time if the mold is new or unseasoned, then place the shaped cookie inside.
- In the oven, preheat the oven to 250 degrees.
- In the oven, bake the maamoul for 6 to 8 minutes on the middle rack, until rosy in color.