Description
Delicate cookies filled with walnuts or dates.
Ingredients
Pastry Dough
- 1 pound semolina flour
- 1 pound farina flour
- 1 pound unsalted butter
- 1 tsp mahlab spice (can omit or sub cardamom)
- ½ fresh grated nutmeg (can sub 1 tsp powdered)
- ¼ cup rose water
- ¼ cup orange blossom water
- ½ cup warm water
- 3 Tbsp powdered sugar
Date Filling
- 13 ounces baking dates
- 2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
Walnut Filling
- 1 pound walnuts
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp rose water
- 1 tsp orange blossom water
- Powered sugar after baking
Instructions
Pastry Dough
- In a large bowl, combine the semolina, farina, mahlab and nutmeg together.
- In a small pot, melt your butter and add to flour mixture when butter is cooled. Cover. Reserve 1/2 cup of this mixture to use with your walnut mixture.
- Let this mixture sit for 2-3 hours. After that time, add in your rose water, cover and sit overnight.
- The next morning add 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:
- In a small bowl, add your baking dates and softened butter.
- Mix to combine. Set aside.
Walnut Filling
- 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.
- Remove from food processor bowl to a standard bowl.
- Add in your 1/2 cup of reserved pastry mixture from the night before mixture and mix together. Set aside.
Assembling and Baking
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- 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.
- In your wooden mold, place the filled dough ball and press firmly to allow the impression to mark the dough.
- Bang the wooden mold to release the formed cookie. Place on baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes on upper 1/3 rack of oven.
- Cookies will be done when bottoms are slightly red.
- After coming out of the oven, dust the WALNUT cookies with powdered sugar (date cookies leave plain)
- Let cool and enjoy!
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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Hi what are baking dates? And also can I use plain flour (aka all purpose flour) instead of farina?
Hi Naz,
Unfortunately traditional flour won’t work in this recipe. Farina is also known as a cereal, you find it in the cereal aisle as well as the bulk section or any middle eastern store.
Baking dates are simply dates that have been made into a paste. You can do the same by processing dates in your food processor to make them smooth.
Xoxo
Cosette
It’s an amazing recipe, they melt in your mouth