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Lebanese Date Cookies

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  • Author: Cosette Posko
  • Prep Time: 1 hr 30
  • Cook Time: 15 minutes
  • Total Time: 0 hours
  • Yield: 20 +people 1x
  • Category: Dessert
  • Cuisine: Lebanese

Description

This recipe will make A LOT of cookies, especially if you make the very small sized as pictured. You can surely increase the size of the cookies to yield fewer.


Ingredients

Units Scale

Date Mixture

  • 26 ounces date paste (date paste can be found in middle eastern stores, usually in 13 oz packages)
  • 4 tbsp unsalted butter, softened

Cookie Dough

  • 5 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup corn flour (**NOT cornmeal)
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 2 cups unsalted butter, softened
  • 1/2 tsp rose water (**can use vanilla extract instead)
  • 1/2 tsp orange blossom water (**can use vanilla extract instead)
  • 1/2 cup milk (add more as needed)

Instructions

Date Mixture

  1. Combine date paste and butter and work until smooth.
  2. Form into small balls, the size depends on how large of a cookie you'd like. Can be anywhere from 1/2-1 tsp in size.

Cookie Dough

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line your cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats. Set aside.
  2. In a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, combine all the ingredients except the milk to form a cohesive dough.
  3. Add the milk slowly once dough forms. Add additional milk if the dough seems dry or crumbly.

Form Cookies

  1. Take a small scoop of your dough and flatten in your hand, place a date ball inside. Fold dough around the date and form into whatever shape you'd like. Round and long shapes are most common.
  2. Place on prepared cookie sheet and create an impression using a fork, knife, dough wheel, cake tip or anything you find that will work.
  3. Bake for 15-17 minutes on the middle rack. Bottoms should be slightly red and tops just beginning to brown.The cookies should not be too dark in color, they will remain fairly pale.
  4. Remove from tray and let cool on cooling rack. Enjoy!

Notes

These cookies freeze well up to 3 months. Pull out baked cookies as you need them.  Baking dates can be found online.  Recipe adapted from Anahid's Gourmet Cookbook