Maamoul (date cookies)

Ingredients

For 24 servings

• •300 g plain flour
• •150 g fine semolina
• •0.5 c. à café baking powder
• •1 c. à café mahleb (available online or at specialist supermarkets)
• •75 g icing sugar plus extra for dusting
• •200 g butter softened
• •5 c. à soupe sunflower oil
• •0.5 c. à café vanilla extract
• •0.25 -½ tsp rose water depending on strength
• •450 g medjool dates pitted and roughly chopped
• •0.25 c. à café rose water
• •0.25 c. à café ground cinnamon

Method

1. 1.Blitz the flour, semolina, baking powder, mahleb and icing sugar together with ¼ tsp salt in a food processor until combined. Add the butter, oil, vanilla and rose water, and pulse until the mixture starts to clump together.
2. 2.Tip out of the food processor and bring together using your hands – the dough should be very soft and pliable. If it’s very sticky, add some flour; if it’s crumbly or cracks, add a little more water. Divide in half and form each piece into a flat disc. Chill for 1 hr.
3. 3.Make the filling by blitzing the dates in a food processor with the rose water, cinnamon and a pinch of salt. When the dough has chilled, divide it into 40g pieces and roll the filling into 20g balls. Roll each piece of dough into a ball, then flatten into discs. Working with one dough disc at a time, put the disc in the palm of one hand and put a filling ball on top. Stretch the dough around the filling ball to enclose it, then pat the whole thing down into a 2cm-thick disc. Press the tines of a fork into the top of the cookie in a cross-hatch pattern, then repeat with the rest of the dough and filling balls. Freeze the cookies for at least 1 hr.
4. 4.Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Arrange the cookies on a baking tray lined with baking parchment and bake for 15-20 mins until the surface is dry and sandy and the cookies are very pale gold in colour. Leave to cool completely on a wire rack, then dust with icing sugar. Will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to two weeks.