ma’amoul

Ma’amoul are filled cookies eaten in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East. Omayah Atassi’s family makes a date-filled version for Eid al-Fitr, and her recipe also notes Easter. Its dough combines wheat flour, coarse semolina, butter, milk, sugar, instant yeast and mahlab, a spice made from the kernel of a cherry species. Date paste mixed with butter is enclosed in the dough before moulding and baking.^[1]

Atassi’s pistachio version uses a flour-and-semolina dough scented with mahlab and orange blossom water. Crushed pistachios are mixed with orange blossom syrup for the filling. The dough is hollowed around a small ball of filling, closed and pressed into a ma’amoul mould or a small patterned baking tray. The baked cookies are coated in powdered sugar.^[2]