Few months ago my wife purchased these cookies out of all places at Costco, on suggestion of her friend. We don’t normally buy any packaged food so I was curious what is so special about these cookies that will make a difference. To my surprise the cookies were very good and very tasty! These buttery cookies simply crumble and dissolve in the mouth, but yet they are firm enough to keep their shape as you take a bite. The large part of the inside of the cookie, I would say about 75% of its cross-section, was filled with a date based filling. The dough was semolina based which provides an interesting grainy texture, nicely contrasted with the smoothness of the date paste filling.
Now that I discovered cookies tasting this good that inevitably sparked my curiosity and interest. After much research I found a good recipe and decided to make them myself. If commercially made cookies were that good I had to believe that homemade version would be way better. And sure enough, they turned out excellent!
To make it even more interesting, as oppose to single filling store bought cookies my recipe included three types of filling: dates, pistachios and walnuts.
The process of baking Maamoul is quite simple, but as usual requires some patience and time.
Out of the whole baking process maybe the only item that I would like to highlight is the amount of kneading required for making the semolina dough. You don’t want to knead the dough any longer than necessary. What does that mean? Don’t over knead it in the hope to get something resembling smooth and strong bread dough. Long kneading will cause the gluten to overdevelop and in turn your cookies will end up hard. Knead the dough just long enough until it comes together. You will see after you let the dough rest, it will be playable and easy to work with. You will end up with cookies that will keep their shape, but will also have a soft texture.
To give the cookie its traditional look, it would be best if you can source a plastic or wooden mold that is used for shaping these cookies. You can find these molds in middle eastern ethnic stores. If you can’t find the mold you can improvise with any similar size round mold, that will work too.
Ancient cookies providing a great joy with your daily cup of coffee or tea!
| Prep Time | 1.5 hours |
| Cook Time | 15 minutes |
| Servings |
cookies
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- 250 g fine semolina
- 75 g clarified unsalted butter lukewarm but not hot!
- 25 g melted unsalted butter lukewarm but not hot!
- 1-2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 3/4 cup all purpose non bleached flour
- 1/4 cup powdered milk
- 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/8 tsp fine sea salt
- 2 tbsp milk
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp rose water
- 1/2 tsp granulated sugar
- 2 tbsp water
- 1/2 tsp instant yeast
- 125 g pistachios shelled
- 3 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 tbsp water
- 100 g walnuts
- 2 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 1/2 tbsp water
- 250 g pitted dates
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
Ingredients
Dough
Yeast Mixture
Pistachio Filling
Walnut Filling
Date Filling
Additional Tools
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- In a medium size bowl add semolina, clarified butter, melted butter and vegetable oil. Between your palms rub the butter and oil into semolina until they are completely absorbed. The texture will resemble a wet sand. Cover with plastic film and lave overnight at room temperature.
- By the next day semolina granules will swell and soften. Add and by hand mix in the rest of dry ingredients: flour, powdered milk, confectioner's sugar, ground nutmeg, baking powder and salt. Slowly and gently using your hand work it into the mixture until completely blended and unified.
- Make a well in the middle and add wet ingredients: milk and vanilla extract.
- In a separate small bowl prepare yeast mixture by dissolving sugar in the water and sprinkling the instant yeast on top. Wait 2-3 minutes until yeast starts foaming up.
- Add yeast mixture and rose water into semolina mixture well. Using your hand mix all ingredients together until unified and then knead briefly. Cover the bowl with plastic film and let rest for 1 hour at room temperature.
- By hand separate approximately 1 tbsp of dough, squeeze together and form a rough ball, and by rolling between your palms form a smooth, roughly 1" diameter ball.
- Proceed and do the same with the rest of the dough and shape approximately 24 balls. Line all balls on the counter.
- Process pitted dates in a food processor until paste like substance is formed. Transfer dates to the plate, add vegetable oil to it and knead by hand until smooth paste is formed.
- Pinch off a piece of date paste, roll between your palms and form approximately 3/4" diameter ball.
- Repeat and make a total of 8 date filling balls.
- Process pistachios in a food processor until powdered. Transfer the powder to plate and add sugar and water to it. Mix with spoon until unified mixture is formed.
- Following the same process as for date filling, shape a total of 8 pistachio balls.
- Process walnuts in a food processor until coarsely ground texture is produced. Transfer to plate and mix with sugar, cinnamon and water to create unified textured mass.
- Following the same described process shape a total of 8 walnut balls.
- Preheat the oven to 230ºC (446ºF), rack in the middle.
- Take a dough ball and with your thumb make a gentle depression in the ball. Keep the ball turning and shape it into a cup like shape. Insert one of the filling balls in the middle and then using your finger enclose the dough around the filling. Set aside.
- Repeat the same process until all 24 balls are filled.
- Place a plastic film over Maamoul mold (plastic or wooden mold that can be found in middle eastern stores). Take filled dough ball, place it in the mold and then pressing firmly with you fingers fill the mold.
- Turn the mold over and extract the formed cookie onto a baking sheet. Peel off the plastic film from the cookie.
- Repeat the same process with the rest of the filled dough balls.
- Bake 10-15 minutes or until edges are golden brown.
- Let cool completely on a cooling wire rack.
- Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve.
- Store in enclosed container at room temperature.
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