Greetings to my Muslim Citizens who have just finished the holy fasting month of Ramadan with the holiday of Eid al-Fitr! These delicious nut cookies from Lebanon are a classic accompaniment to the Eid al-Fitr holiday, as well as Easter for Lebanese Christians!
Maamoul is an ancient Arab dessert filled pastry or cookie made with dates, pistachios or nuts such as walnuts (occasionally almonds). They may be in the shape of balls, domed or flattened cookies. They can either be decorated by hand or be made in special wooden molds.
Maamoul is usually made a few days before Eid, then stored to be served with Arabic coffee and chocolate to the guests who come during the holiday. It is popular throughout the Arab world, especially in the Levant.
Maamoul originate from date-filled kahk, a similar cookie eaten by Egyptians for Eid al-Fitr and Easter. Kahk have been eaten in Egypt since the Eighteenth Dynasty, 3500 years ago, and have been part of the Eid feast since the 10th century AD Tulunid dynasty. The Arabic word Ma’amoul (Arabic: معمول) is derived from the Arabic verb Arabic: ‘amala, meaning to “to do”.
Many households keep a stock of them all year round, but they are particularly used on religious festivals.
Muslims eat them at night during Ramadan and on the Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha holidays, Arab Christians and Greeks eat them in the days before Lent, on Easter Sunday and on the feast of Epiphany. In the Christian traditions of the Mediterranean area, the cookies are marked with a cross, or shaped into rings to symbolize the crown of Jesus.
They are also popular among Syrian, Lebanese and Egyptian Jewish communities, where ma’amoul with nut fillings are eaten on Purim, and ma’amoul with date fillings are eaten on Rosh Hashanah and Hanukkah. The Levantine Jewish version of maamoul differs from the Levantine or Turkish versions by being made with pure white flour and no semolina, today this variation is eaten in Syrian and Egyptian Jewish communities in the Diaspora.
You don’t need tabbeh (a beautifully carved wooden mold for making maamoul at home) to make maamoul, but the molds are traditionally used to give the cookies their distinctive shapes and ornate designs. Circular molds are traditionally used for date maamoul and oblong for nut maamoul. You can buy the proper maamoul mold for this recipe here.
Some bakers shape maamoul by hand or use the tines of a fork or a metal pincher to decorate the cookies. Other bakers make a simple bar cookie variation on maamoul (maamoul madd) with a layer of filling between shortbread crusts.
My version is spiced to TFD standards – I hope you enjoy it, Citizens! 😀
Battle on – The Generalissimo
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The Hirshon Lebanese Pistachio Maamoul Cookies – معمول
- Total Time: 0 hours
Ingredients
- 2 pounds farina (the very fine semolina)
- 2/3 cup coarse semolina
- 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
- 1/2 cup orange blossom water
- 1/2 cup rose water
- 1 tablespoon mahleb
- 1 tsp. Vanilla paste
- 1/2 tsp. freshly-grated nutmeg
- 21 ounces butter, to be clarified
- ***
- Filling:
- 1 1/2 cup raw pistachios
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 tsp. freshly-ground green cardamom
- 3 tablespoons orange blossom water
Instructions
- Start by clarifying the butter: In a heavy bottomed saucepan, melt the butter over low heat; remove the saucepan from the heat as soon as it has melted. Set aside for 10 minutes. You will notice the milk solids fall to the bottom.
- Strain it through a wire sieve lined with several layers with cheesecloth. Pour the melted butter over the cheesecloth and get rid of the milk solids. Now you have the clarified butter.
- Mix the farina and coarse semolina in a large bowl. Pour the clarified butter and knead with you hands to infuse all together. Set aside (the semolina mix needs to rest for 6 hours) .
- Meanwhile, prepare the filling: place the raw pistachios in a food processor and pulse a few times to considerably grind the pistachios. Transfer to a bowl, add the sugar, cardamom and orange blossom water, and mix well to fully incorporate. Set aside.
- When 6 hours have passed on soaking the semolina mix, add the all-purpose flour, active dry yeast, mahlab, canola oil, orange blossom water, vanilla paste, nutmeg and rose water.
- Knead the sticky dough for a minute or until the dough is soft and silky. Cover with a kitchen towel and leave it to rest for 1 more hour.
- To put together: Lightly grease a cookie sheet or line it with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F. Place a rack in the center of the oven
- After 1 hour, knead the dough again and divide it into equal balls, roughly the size of an apricot. Make a hole in the center of each ball, with your finger fill the hole with a teaspoon of the pistachio filling. Seal the hole patching the dough together and roll it into a ball.
- Transfer each stuffed ball into the mold, pressing it lightly in to level it up with the mold. Gently tap the mold on a counter top, converting it and the maamoul will come out.
- Place it on the cookie sheet, keep the maamoul 2cm/1 inch apart. Bake about 15-20 minutes to a golden color. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool down, then dust with powdered sugar.
- Prep Time: 0 hours
- Cook Time: 0 hours
- Category: Recipes
Nutrition
- Calories: 1921.19 kcal
- Sugar: 29.61 g
- Sodium: 21.34 mg
- Fat: 169.83 g
- Saturated Fat: 81.22 g
- Trans Fat: 4.99 g
- Carbohydrates: 90.21 g
- Fiber: 7.7 g
- Protein: 18.79 g
- Cholesterol: 320.0 mg
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