These glorious pastries have a melt-in-the-mouth shell and a variety of fillings of dates or nuts—walnuts, pistachios, or almonds. See the variations for these. My mother always had a biscuit tin full of them to offer with coffee. In Syria and Lebanon they make them with semolina instead of flour. An uncle told us of a baking competition organized by a dignitary in Aleppo many years ago. The maker of the best ma’amoul would get a prize, the equivalent of about two pounds, to be paid by the dignitary. Hundreds of ma’amoul poured into his house, certainly more than two pounds’ worth, and enough to keep him eating happily for months.

　　

Ingredients

makes about 40

　　

For the Date Filling

1 pound pitted dates

　　About 1/2 cup water

　　3 cups all-purpose flour

　　1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into pieces

　　2–3 tablespoons orange-blossom or rose water

　　4–5 tablespoons milk

　　Confectioners’ sugar to sprinkle on

　　

Step 1

Prepare the filling. Cut the dates up into pieces. Put them in a saucepan with the water and cook over low heat, stirring, until they turn to a soft paste. Let it cool.

　　

Step 2

Put the flour in a bowl and work the butter in with your fingers. Add orange blossom or rose water and the milk—only just enough, if any, for the dough to hold together—and work until it is soft, malleable, and easy to shape.

　　

Step 3

Take a walnut-sized lump of dough. Roll it into a ball and hollow it out with your thumb. Pinch the sides up to make a pot shape. Fill the hole three quarters full with the filling and bring the dough up over the opening to close into a ball. Flatten the filled balls slightly.

　　

Step 4

Place the pastries on a large baking tray. Make little decorations in the tops of the pastries with tweezers, or make little dents with the points of a fork. (This will help the confectioners’ sugar to cling after they are baked.) Bake in a preheated 325°F oven for 20–25 minutes. Do not let the pastries become brown, or they will be hard and their taste will be spoiled. While they are still warm, they appear soft and uncooked, but on cooling they become firm.

　　

Step 5

When cool, dust the pastries with confectioners’ sugar. They will keep for a long time in a tightly closed tin.

　　

Variations

Step 6

The following three nut fillings are considered the grandest, and they really are delicious. Use them instead of the date filling:

　　

Step 7

2 1/2 cups finely chopped walnuts mixed with 4 tablespoons sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and the grated rind of 1/2 orange

　　

Step 8

2 1/2 cups ground pistachio nuts mixed with 4 tablespoons sugar and 1 tablespoon rose water

　　

Step 9

2 1/2 cups ground almonds mixed with 4 tablespoons sugar and 2 tablespoons rose or orange-blossom water.

　　

Step 10

An easier version of the date-filled ma’amoul is a date roll. Divide the dough into 4 parts. Roll out and flatten each part into a rectangle 2 inches wide. Spread the date paste over each rectangle thinly and roll up lengthwise into a fat sausage shape. Cut diagonally into 1 1/4-inch sections. Prick the tops with a fork so that they will hold the sugar better. Bake as above and, when cool, roll in confectioners’ sugar.

　　The New Book of Middle Eastern Food Copyright © 2000Knopf