Ma’amoul is the most famous sweets made by Muslims and Christians alike for their holidays and festivals in the Middle East and some other Arab countries. Each region has it is own special recipe and their own creative input that’s why people enjoy sharing their ma’amoul around and try other people’s.
Even preparing the ma’amoul is a ritual in itself. Most of the family members come together to prepare it and sometimes neighbors come together where each one prepare her own ma’amoul while chatting and laughing with her friends.
Traditionally ma’amoul is made using semolina and ghee but there are a lot of variation to these two. As for the filling, the most widely spread is using dates paste “Ajweh”. But you can find it filled with nuts mainly walnuts or pistachios. Each one of those have its own distinct mould style to make it easy for people to identity which is which once they are baked.
To know how to make these scrumptious melt in your mouth delights watch the following video:
Ingredients:
– For the dough
- 2 kilos semolina
- 1 cup flour
- 2/3 cup powdered milk
- 2/3 sugar
- 1 tsp mehlap
- 2 tsp ground aniseeds
- 2 tsp ground fennel seeds
- 650 gram melted butter
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 1/2 tsp instant dried yeast
- 3 cups lukewarm water
– For dates filling
- 1 kilo dates paste ** See Tips
- 1/4 cup metled ghee
- 2 tsp ground aniseeds
- 2 tsp ground fennel seeds
– For the walnuts filling
- 1 cup finely chopped walnuts
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp honey
- a bit of water ** See Tips
– For the pistachios filling
- 1/2 cup finely chopped pistachios
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp rose water
Tips:
- You can use fine or coarse semolina or a mix of both. I’ve used 1 1/2 kilo of the fine semolina and 1/2 kilo of the coarse.
- You can use melted butter or melted ghee or mix of both. You can use less of these and add oil too. But it is important the majority is of ghee or butter rather than oil.
- Make sure you rub the dry ingredients with butter long enough as this will enhance the texture of the final product. You should leave that for a whole day.
- The amount of water used in the dough might vary according to the semolina so it is best o add the water gradually while kneading the dough until it comes together.
- Leave the dough to rest for an hour in a warm place.
- Dates paste is found in international or middle eastern supermarkets. Alternatively you can make yours by ground soft dates in a food processor until it become a paste.
- You can replace ghee in the dates filling with butter or olive oil.
- When adding water to the walnuts filling just add enough to make it come together.
- Bake the ma’amoul in a preheated oven at 200 C until they become golden.
- Before serving you can dust ma’amoul with icing sugar.
