Maamoul (Filled Semolina Cookies)
Overview
Maamoul are semolina cookies filled with a sweet paste, walnuts here, though dates and pistachios are equally traditional, pressed into a carved mould and dusted with icing sugar. They are Levantine in origin, strongly associated with Lebanon, and eaten across the Middle East and North Africa. **They contain walnuts, which the title gives no indication of.** **This page had no recipe card in the source.** The ingredients and method below are reconstructed from its article, and that is flagged. Two things distinguish maamoul from an ordinary filled cookie. The dough is semolina rather than flour, worked with boiling water and fat, and then rested for at least an hour, often overnight. That rest lets the semolina hydrate fully, and without it the cookies are gritty. The second is the mould: carved wooden moulds called tabi press a pattern into each cookie, and traditionally the pattern indicates the filling, so you can tell dates from walnuts from pistachios without breaking one open. They are festival food. Maamoul is made for Eid al-Fitr, for Easter and for Purim, by Muslim, Christian and Jewish families respectively across the Levant, one of the more striking examples of a single food crossing all three. The source's method contains a typo, calling for groundnuts where the ingredient list specifies walnuts.
AFN Heritage Note
Maamoul are filled semolina cookies of Levantine origin, particularly associated with Lebanon and eaten across the Middle East and North Africa. They are shaped in carved wooden moulds whose patterns traditionally indicate the filling, and are made for Eid al-Fitr, Easter and Purim.
Ingredients
Dietary tags are provided by contributors as a guide, not verified by AFN, and they depend on the products you buy. If you have a serious allergy, check every ingredient yourself. Cooking, allergies and your own judgement
Directions
- 1
Put the semolina flour into a medium bowl and cut in the shortening with a pastry blender or a fork until evenly distributed.
- 2
Pour in the boiling water and mix to a solid dough.
- 3
Turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for a minute or two until well blended.
- 4
Cover the dough and leave it to stand for at least an hour, or overnight. This rest lets the semolina hydrate fully and is what stops the cookies being gritty.
- 5
Mix the sugar, ground walnuts and rose water together in a bowl until uniform. Set aside.
- 6
Set the oven to 350°F / 175°C and grease baking sheets or line them with parchment.
- 7
Knead the dough briefly again and form it into walnut-sized balls.
- 8
Make a hole in the centre of each ball with your finger, fill it with the nut mixture, and seal the dough over it.
- 9
Press each filled ball into a carved maamoul mould if you have one, then tap it out onto the sheet; otherwise flatten gently and mark the top with a fork.
- 10
Bake for around 20 to 25 minutes, until set and only just beginning to colour. Maamoul should stay pale.
- 11
Cool completely, then dust generously with icing sugar.
Africook’s Notes
- These contain walnuts. Nothing in the name says so, so mention it when you serve them.
- Rest the dough for at least an hour. Semolina needs time to absorb the water and unrested dough gives gritty cookies.
- Keep them pale. Maamoul are baked until set rather than browned, and a golden maamoul is an overbaked one.
- Seal the dough carefully around the filling. A cookie that splits in the oven loses its filling entirely.
- Dust with icing sugar only once completely cool, or it dissolves into the surface.
- Dates and pistachios are equally traditional fillings, and in a carved mould the pattern traditionally tells you which is which.
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