Ma'amoul (nut filled cookies)

35 Servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
2½ cup Unbleached all-purpose flour
½ cup Semolina
2½ Sticks pareve margarine or 2 sticks butter
2 teaspoons Vegetable oil
¼ cup Water; (up to 1/2 cup)
1½ cup Roughly ground walnuts
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
½ cup Sugar

Directions

DOUGH

FILLING

1. Combine the flour, semolina, margarine and vegetable oil. Add the water gradually. Blend well. (A food processor is splendid for this.) Cover and set aside for 10-15 minutes in the refrigerator.

2. Combine the walnuts with the cinnamon and sugar.

3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

4. Either use the ma'amoul mold described above or take a piece of the dough about the size of a walnut. Roll it into a ball and hollow out the center. Inside, place a heaping teaspoon of walnut filling. With your hands, mold the dough closed.

5. Place each cookie on an ungreased cookie sheet. With the tines of a fork or tweezers with a serrated edge, make designs on the top of a cookie, being sure not to penetrate the crust.

6. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes. Do not brown, the cookies should look white. Cool. When hard, roll in confectioner's sugar.

Makes 35-40.

NOTES: Ma'amoul means "filled" in Arabic. Ma'amouls are small imprinted molds made of wood that have a handle attached. A piece of short-pastry dough is pressed into these molds and date or nut filling is then enclosed in the dough. Holding the handle, the mold is slammed on the table causing the finished dough to drop out. The imprinted dough can then be rolled in confectioner's sugar if so desired. If a mold is not available the cookies can also be made using a tool of your choice.

These cookies are traditionally eaten at Purim in Middle Eastern countries... especially in Syria, Lebanon and Egypt.

SOURCE: The Jewish Holiday Kitchen by Joan Nathan p. 227 Schocken Books NY ISBN 0-8052-0900-X

Recipe by: The Jewish Holiday Kitchen by Joan Nathan p.227 1988 Posted to JEWISH-FOOD digest by Linda Shapiro <lss@...> on Feb 20, 1998

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