Learn how to prepare maamoul, the Lebanese cookies or shortbread sweets made with semolina, and filled with dates, walnuts, or pistachios.
Maamoul, mamule, or mamul, is the most famous kind of sweets that Levant people prepare around Easter and Eid Al Fitr. They are known in the west as Lebanese cookies, loaded with dates, pistachio, or walnuts.
In Lebanon, making maamoul is an important family tradition. Women from the same families and neighborhoods gather themselves around in one kitchen to prepare large batches of these scrumptious sweets in preparation for the big feast day.
The crust of the maamoul is both crunchy and melting at the same time. There is a divine work put in place to come up with this finishing. The balance between coarse and fine semolina rubbed in butter and rose water unleashes the magic, to give delightful crunchy maamoul cookies. And not to forget the art of sculpting the cookies, whether using the traditional maamoul molds, or the maamoul clips with an artistic twist.
Maamoul, known as Lebanese maamoul cookies worldwide, is a sort of shortbread sweet cookie made with a balanced amount of semolina and flour, perfectly rubbed in butter, and filled with date paste, pistachio, or walnuts and almonds. These cookies are traditionally served in the Levant, mainly on Easter, and in some areas on Eid El Fitr.
This recipe is egg-free but is not dairy-free. To make these cookies, you need the following ingredients:
To make these maamoul cookies, start making the dough one day earlier. Mix rough semolina, fine semolina, sugar, and mahlab. Then, add the butter and start rubbing the semolina with your fingers for 10 minutes and let rest until the second day.
After 24 hours, add rose water, blossom water, yeast, and a ¼ cup of warm water and start kneading. Then continue adding water one spoon at a time, until the dough becomes cohesive and hard.
Do not let the dough rest. Start making the cookies immediately.
In Lebanon, people tend to use an oval shape for the pistachio cookies and a round bumped shape for the walnut cookies. Both flavors are covered with powder sugar. Hence, the reason to bake them is only until the color on the top starts to darken.
On the other hand, date maamoul is baked until the cookies become reddish. As dates are already sweet, there is no need to cover date cookies with powdered sugar. Molds of date maamoul tend to be round flat.
Surprisingly yes. Once you bake these cookies, wait until they cooled completely and store them in a container in the freezer. However, make sure not to cover the pistachio and walnut ones with powder sugar if you decide to freeze them.
To learn more about how to prepare maamoul, watch this video:
If you are a dessert lover, check out my recipes below:
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Learn how to prepare maamoul, the Lebanese cookies or shortbread sweets made with semolina, and filled with dates, walnuts, or pistachios.
For the dough:
For the filling:
Preparing the dough:
Preparing the filling:
Molding the maamoul:
Baking the maamoul:
Calories: 55 kcal per serving | Serving size: 1 maamoul | Number of servings: 90
Total Fat 2 g | Saturated Fat 1 g | Cholesterol 0 mg | Sodium 2 mg | Potassium 0 mg | Total Carbohydrate 7 g | Dietary Fiber 0 g | Sugars 2 g | Protein 1 g | Vitamin A: 0% | Vitamin C: 0% | Calcium: 0% | Iron: 0%
* The Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet