Ma’amoul or Klaicha

Recently, a friend of mine had an exchange student from Iraq staying with her, and she thought it would be nice to make some familiar food for him. She really didn’t have much time to cook that week, and I remembered that I had a Middle Eastern cookie in my cookbook, Light Jewish Holiday Desserts. My recipe was adapted from a Lebanese Jewish recipe, and not wanting to be an American lout, I thought it would be a good idea to do some Internet research to see if these cookies were also eaten by Iraqis (of any faith). Sure enough, a very similar cookie came up under the name Klaicha or Kleicha. The student was touched that I went to the trouble for him, and all of the guests enjoyed these sweet treats. Like many other recipes, there are regional and familial versions of this cookie, some being so remotely alike that it’s hard to believe it’s called the same thing. In any case, to be most authentic, you’ll probably want to follow the higher fat version (below) using orange flower water instead of orange juice. Since I don’t like orange flower water, I always make them with orange juice. My lower-fat version follows at the end of the recipe.

Makes 25 cookies

Pastry
2 cups (260 grams) unbleached all-purpose flour, fluffed, scooped and leveled into measuring cups
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom, optional
11 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cut into 1/2 inch chunks
3 tablespoons orange juice (or 2 teaspoons orange flower water and the remainder water)

Date Filling
8 ounces whole, pitted, dates (about 1/2 cup, packed)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons melted unsalted butter

For the Pastry
Place the flour in a processor bowl. Add the cardamom, if using it. Scatter the butter on top of the flour. Pulse-process until the butter is cut into the flour to resemble coarse meal, about five 3-second bursts.

Sprinkle the orange juice over the flour. Process until the dough forms a ball. It should be very soft and moist.

Remove it from the processor, wrap in plastic wrap, and set aside, at room temperature, for 1 hour.

While the dough is resting, make the date filling. If the dates are very soft, they can be processed without cooking them. Place them in the processor, add the cinnamon, and process until finely chopped. Add the butter, and pulse-process to incorporate (if you continually process instead of pulse-process, the paste gets very soft, and changes to an unpleasant color). If you have miscalculated the moistness of your dates, and feel they need to be softer, remove the metal blade and set the processor bowl in a microwave. Heat on medium-high for up to 2 minutes. Pulse-process again to smooth out the paste. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 350°F., with the shelves in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Divide the dough into 30 balls. Press your thumb into the center of each ball to form a cavity. Form the dough into a little “pot” with the sides being about 1/16^th inch thick. If the dough flattens while you are trying to make the pot, knead in a little bit of flour. If the dough is a little too sticky, sprinkle the work table and your hands with a little flour and then work the dough. Fill each pot about three-quarters full with a rounded half-teaspoonful of filling. Press the dough to seal in the filling and then roll the dough between your hands to form a flattened ball.

To make the characteristic design in the cookies, you will need a special mold. An alternative is to score the balls with fork, or to use some sort of makeshift mold. I used an egg separator that had a very similar design to the traditional mold. This was floured, and then the dough ball was set in and pressed down lightly.

Flip the ball out of the mold, set on the parchment lined sheets and bake for 18 to 22 minutes, until lightly browned.

Slide the parchment onto cooling racks and let the cookies cool before storing.

VARIATION
To make lower-fat ma-amoul, use the following ingredients and the instructions listed above:

1 -1/8 cups (120 grams) sifted cake flour, lightly sprinkled into a measuring cup
1 cup (120 grams) all-purpose flour, lightly sprinkled into a measuring cup 1/2 teaspoon cardamom, optional
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold and cut into 1/2 inch chunks
3 tablespoons corn syrup
3 tablespoons orange juice (or 2 teaspoons orange flower water and the remainder water)

Date Filling
8 ounces whole, pitted, dates (about 1/2 cup, packed)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons orange juice