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Ma'amoul Cookies

Cookies of my Childhood

When I think of home and my childhood, the scent of rose and orange blossom water linger in my mind. Those are the most distinct flavors and smells of most Middle Eastern desserts. 

I can remember watching my mom in the kitchen before all holidays and special events making special treats, one in particular, ma'amoul. Ma'amoul cookies are little pockets of goodness filled with walnuts or dates, of course scented with the aromas of orange blossom and rose waters. Delicate pastry is wrapped and baked into a perfect cookie to enjoy with morning coffee or on a cookie platter.

Labor of Love

Ma'amoul are definitely a labor of love, each individual cookie shaped and pressed with care, baked to perfection. The wooden molds are truly what make this dessert elegant and special with unique patterns and designs. You'll find that this cookie doesn't contain any traditional flour, but instead a mixture of semolina and farina flours. This delicate balance of flours give the cookies a tender but yet crisp bite and something truly unique.

Pressing the dough into the molds

A few taps on your surface to release the cookie out of the mold. 
Walnut filled cookies receive a dusting of powdered sugar after coming out of the oven.

This past week, my own children watched me prepare the ma'amoul dough, prepare the filling and make each special cookie. It was a moment where I realized that the reason I do this, the reason I cook and bake is for them. Ma'amoul was part of my childhood, something that stuck in my mind as a fond memory, food does that to us. I want my own children to have those same memories, the smells and tastes of their childhood to look back on. 

Whatever the reason you decide to bake today, I hope it's a good one. Whether it's a rainy day, a time to bond with kids or just to make a special treat for yourself. 

As always, I love seeing your creations. Please leave a review or share your dish with me on social media which lets me know what is working for you! You can find me on Facebook,  Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest. For more delicious recipes to your inbox, sign up for my newsletter!

xoxo,
Cosette

Print Recipe
 Ma'amoul Cookies
Delicious cookies filled with a walnut or date filling.
maamoul, cookies, lebanese
Course Dessert
Cuisine Lebanese
Keyword cookies, lebanese
Prep Time 45 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Servings
cookies
Ingredients
Pastry Dough
Date Filling
Walnut Filling
Course Dessert
Cuisine Lebanese
Keyword cookies, lebanese
Prep Time 45 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Servings
cookies
Ingredients
Pastry Dough
Date Filling
Walnut Filling
maamoul, cookies, lebanese
Instructions
Pastry Dough
  1. In a large bowl, combine the semolina, farina, mahlab and nutmeg together.
  2. In a small pot, melt your butter and add to flour mixture when butter is cooled. Cover.
  3. Let this mixture sit for 2-3 hours. After that time, add in your rose water, mix and cover again. Allow mixture to sit overnight.
  4. After mixture has sat overnight, remove about ½ cup of your mixture, set aside.
  5. Next, add in your orange blossom water, warm water and powdered sugar. Mix until a dough forms that sticks together when pressed between fingers. If dough is too dry, add a touch of water.
Date Filling
  1. In a small bowl, add your baking dates and softened butter. Mix to combine. Set aside.
Walnut Filling
  1. In the bowl of a food processor, add your walnuts, sugar, orange and rose waters and combine until nuts are fine and mixture forms together.
  2. Remove from food processor bowl to a standard bowl.
  3. Add in your ½ cup of reserved pastry dough mixture and mix together. Set aside.
Assembling and Baking
  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
  2. Begin by taking about a teaspoon sized piece of dough and begin to flatten. Fill the center with either your date or walnut mixture and seal all around to create a ball.
  3. In your wooden mold, place the filled dough ball and press firmly to allow the impression to mark the dough.
  4. Bang the wooden mold to release the formed cookie. Place on baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes on upper ⅓ rack of oven.
  5. Cookies will be done when bottoms are slightly red.
  6. After coming out of the oven, dust the WALNUT cookies with powdered sugar (date cookies leave plain)
  7. Let cool and enjoy!
Recipe Notes

** Using a scale to measure ingredients is most accurate for this recipe. ** If the dough gets to too soft to work with, you can refrigerate for a bit to firm up. **If you can't find Mahlab spice, you can substitute additional nutmeg or cardamom, or omit completely.  **Wooden molds can be found here or at any Middle Eastern grocery store.   

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Lebanese BakLAWA

I remember so fondly my parents making all the Lebanese desserts over the holidays. Our holiday cookies looked a little different than our friends' cookies. Ingredients like semolina, farina, phyllo dough were common. The standard chocolate chip cookie wasn't the norm at my house. Our desserts were special morsels of flavor from the Mediterranean.  Flavors that my parents grew up with and began passing on to us! 

Both my parents are amazing in the kitchen as many of you already know and holiday time is no exception. They make everything shine. Perfect trays of desserts, every favorite dish you can think of, mezze (or appetizers) to munch on for days, from savory fatayer (savory pies: meat, spinach), hummus, grape leaves and so much more! I am SO thankful I get to go home to spend the holidays with the family! Wouldn't you??

BatLAWA vs BakLAVA

But dessert, the famous and most delicious desserts: mammoul, numoora, shyreehe and the coveted baklawa. Hands down one of my favorite Lebanese desserts. BakLAWA, similar to the more frequently referred to, bakLAVA is slightly different. Baklawa is also made with thin sheets of phyllo dough + nuts + butter, lots of butter! But some of the differences are in the syrup. The traditional Greek bakLAVA uses a honey based syrup with some additional spices, generally quite sweet. Lebanese baklawa on the otherhand uses a simple syrup mixture scented with orange blossom and rose waters. Batlawa filling is also a little bit lighter than baklava, not as much filling overall and less ingredients. Batlawa is made simply with phyllo dough + butter + walnuts + sugar + orange blossom and rose waters. You can smell a Lebanese dessert miles away, they will generally always contain the lovely orange blossom and rose waters, our signature scents. 

While our lovely Lebanese batlawa gets lost in the shuffle, I personally think it is more delicate and frankly, more consumable (that is if you want to eat large copious amounts of it). Just like a chocolate chip cookie with many variations, this is just one of many versions of batlawa or baklava. While these aren't a traditional cookie, they are definitely bite-sized and even more delicious than any cookie I have tasted. I hope you find yourself this holiday season making memories with your family, baking your favorite desserts with your mom, dad, aunt, uncle or children. And if you find the time, try a new holiday cookie (or dessert) of batlawa, the Lebanese morsel of goodness. As always, I love seeing your creations, tag me on Instagram @CosettesKitchen or post on my Facebook Page.

Happiest of Holidays to you and your loved ones!

Xoxo
Cosette



Print Recipe


Lebanese BakLAWA

Course Dessert
Cuisine Lebanese

Prep Time 1 hour (divided)
Cook Time 1 hour

Servings
half sheet


Ingredients
Syrup (Attar)

Baklawa

Course Dessert
Cuisine Lebanese

Prep Time 1 hour (divided)
Cook Time 1 hour

Servings
half sheet


Ingredients
Syrup (Attar)

Baklawa


Instructions
Syrup (Attar)
  1. Combine your water and sugar in a medium heavy-bottomed pot. Heat on medium-high heat until sugar dissolves, stir occasionally.

  2. Bring to a boil, allow the syrup to boil for about 5-7 minutes.

  3. Remove from heat after syrup thickens slightly and add your lemon juice and waters.

  4. Pour into a glass container add a small sliver of lemon to store in the syrup. Once cooled to room temperature, store in refrigerator.

  5. Syrup lasts many months in the fridge and can be used on many desserts.

Clarified Butter
  1. Begin my preparing your butter. You'll need to make sure you clarify your butter before using. Details below from Serious Eats.**

  2. In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium-high heat.

  3. Continue to cook over medium-high heat; an even layer of white milk proteins will float to the surface.

  4. Bring to a boil; the milk proteins will become foamy.

  5. Lower heat to medium and continue to gently boil; the milk proteins will break apart.

  6. As the butter gently boils, the milk proteins will eventually sink to the bottom of the pot, and the boiling will begin to calm and then cease.

  7. Once boiling has stopped, pour butter through a cheesecloth-lined strainer or through a coffee filter into a heatproof container to remove browned milk solids. Let cool, then transfer to a sealed container and refrigerate until ready to use. Clarified butter should keep for at least 6 months in the refrigerator.

Baklawa
  1. Thaw your phyllo dough according to the package instructions.

  2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

  3. In the bowl of a food processor, combine your walnuts + sugar and pulse until the nuts and sugar are combine and the nuts are small fine crumbles. Add a splash of rose and orange blossom waters (about ½ teaspoon of each).

  4. Begin assembling your baklawa by coating the bottom of a half sheet pan with your clarified butter. Be sure to also coat the sides.

  5. Take about 10 sheets of your phyllo dough and lay flat on the buttered sheet pan.

  6. Spread your walnut mixture evenly across the phyllo.

  7. Drizzle about 2 tablespoons of butter on top of your walnuts.

  8. Place the remaining phyllo dough on top of your walnut mixture.

  9. Begin cutting your dessert. With a sharp knife, begin making diagonal lines across evenly. Make sure to press down to cut through to the bottom.

  10. Next, go across the opposite way to create a diamond. Continue until the tray is completely cut. (choose whatever size works for you)

  11. Next, drizzle your remaining clarified butter over the top ensuring it falls into all the cracks. Tilt your tray back and forth to coat evenly.

  12. Place in preheated oven and bake for 30 minutes in center of your oven.

  13. After 30 minutes, reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees Fahrenheit and bake for an additional 20-30 minutes. Be sure to check so it doesn't brown too much. Ovens vary in temperature.

  14. Once top is golden and flaky, remove from oven. Check bottom to ensure it's golden brown as well.

  15. While batlawa is still HOT, pour your attar syrup on top. You'll use about 1-1.5 cups. Drizzle starting from one end and work down to the other end until the batlawa is coated and absorbs the syrup.

  16. Let cool, remove pieces and enjoy!


Recipe Notes

**Recipe for clarifying butter from: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2015/08/clarified-butter-recipe.html **You can make the attar syrup and clarified butter ahead and store in fridge until ready to use. Melt butter before using. 


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Swoonworthy Apple Cake

Our Day.

We're already inching through November, kids are off of school 3 days this week and another 3 days week after next (they were also off last Friday). We're fully into "No School November" an official term here in Portland! Don't get me wrong, I love my kids but since all 3 have been at school full-time, I've kind of learned to love my time away from them (does that make me a bad mom??). Anywho, we spent today at home, I did some cooking and baking and also managed to make some playdough (you can find the recipe on my Instagram). There was also the ridiculously long Uno game, no lie...never-ending. But I wanted to be sure to spend time with them, even though I have about 6 million things to do (and the list keeps growing). They are growing up so fast and every day I see changes in each of them. So here I am at 10:45pm after finally cleaning up the kitchen from dinner, changed sheets and kiddos all in bed. 

The Cake.

This cake. What can I say about this cake besides, it's a SPECTACULAR. It's simple to put together, fail-proof, sweet enough for dessert but also perfectly perfect for morning coffee. I remember my mom making this cake when we were growing up, she called it the 1, 2, 3, 4 cake, something about the number of each item (I still don't get it) but she always made it and it always made the house smell amazing. Sometimes it was made with apples in the center (as I'm writing it today) and other times with walnuts. 

With Thanksgiving less than 2 weeks away I want to give you some dessert inspiration. I mean, Thanksgiving is officially the PIE holiday but if pie isn't your thing or you aren't ready to make and roll out pie dough, this cake will be the perfect addition to your holiday gathering. I've jazzed up the original recipe to include: apples + cinnamon + brown butter + walnuts = all the things we crave on epic Thanksgiving or Friendsgiving holidays. 

Brown Butter. 

Brown butter, besides cheese and bread this may be my other secret love child. I mean, butter on its own is pretty dynamite but take that butter, melt it down and get all those little brown bits and you have something even more superior. So I thought, hey, why not drizzle this amazing cake with a brown butter glaze, it can certainly do no wrong. So I baked the epic, classic cake, drizzled it with brown butter glaze and topped it with walnuts. I truly believe most desserts should have nuts, don't you? I won't digress or lead you on an even longer journey of my ramblings. You can find the recipe for this delicious cake below. Whether you decide to make it for Thanksgiving, Friendsgiving or just a Sunday morning, I promise you won't be disappointed. As always, I love seeing your creations, be sure to tag me on Instagram @CosettesKitchen or post on my Facebook Page.


Print Recipe
 Apple Cake
Apple cake with walnuts and browned butter
Course Baked Good, Dessert
Cuisine Dessert
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 65 minutes
Servings
slices
Ingredients
Cake
Brown Butter Glaze
Course Baked Good, Dessert
Cuisine Dessert
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 65 minutes
Servings
slices
Ingredients
Cake
Brown Butter Glaze
Apple cake with walnuts and browned butter
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter + flour a bundt pan.
  2. In stand mixer, mix eggs, vanilla (or whiskey), lemon zest and sugar until blended and smooth.
  3. Add flour, baking powder + salt on low speed.
  4. Finally add the oil and orange juice. Blend until smooth, be sure to scrape down sides and bottom. Batter will be thick.
  5. Pour half the batter into the bundt pan.
  6. Next, mix the apples and cinnamon together in a small bowl and place on top of the batter poured into bundt.
  7. Finally, pour the 2nd half of the batter on top.
  8. Bake for 65-75 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.
  9. Remove when done, let cool and remove from bundt pan.
  10. Once cake has cooled, drizzle brown butter glaze and top with walnuts while glaze is wet.
Brown Butter Glaze
  1. Melt the butter on medium heat. Continue melting until brown bits begin to form. Be sure to scrape and swirl the pan as the butter melts. Remove when the smell is aromatic and butter has browned.
  2. Whisk in the remaining ingredients until a smooth glaze forms.
Recipe Notes

*Feel free to add in walnuts to the center of your cake if you'd like.

*The glaze and additional nuts are definitely optional, the cake on its own is amazing and can stand up to any dessert tray. 

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