Using dates as a filling is quite famous in the Middle Eastern cuisine. To be honest, it is my favorite kind of filling. It is naturally sweetened and with the right kind of spices it takes your palate to a new different level. Getting cookies or sweet pastries that are filled with dates is the best and most common thing you can get from your local bakery in the Middle East.

So I wanted to work on my own version of these kind of cookies. So I decided to start tweaking another dough recipe that I worked before with. I chose to work with beigli which is the Hungarian walnuts roulade which I shared on this blog before. You can find the recipe here.

Of course I had to tweak it and add my Middle Eastern touch to it and thus created these super easy, soft and chewy dates stick cookies. They are perfect for your tea time as they are light, not overly sweet and easy to eat with your fingers.

You can watch the video with English detailed instructions here:

Ingredients:

Dough:

• 2 cups flour
• 100 grams of cold butter cut into 1 cm cubes
• 1/2 cup lukewarm milk
• 1 teaspoon instant dried yeast
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds powder
• 1 teaspoon anise seeds powder

Filling:

• 250 gram dates paste “check tips”
• 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds powder
• 1 teaspoon anise seeds powder
• 1/2 teaspoon star anise powder

For the glaze:

• 1 large egg, its yolk and white separated

Tips:

•  Make sure that the butter is cold
• Make sure to knead the dough long enough between 7 – 10 minutes.
• Lightly beat the egg yolk and the egg white separately before brushing each to the roulades’ surface.
• After rolling the dough into a rope you can further stretch it until you get the thickness you prefer.
• When glazing, you start with the egg yolk and let the dough rest and the glaze dry before glazing again with the egg white before baking. This will create the tiger like golden finish to your cookies.
• Bake the cookies in a preheated oven at 180 C in a normal oven and 160 C in a fan forced oven.
• Make sure that the cookies has completely cooled before storing in an airtight container.

They are easy to make and almost foul proof. You can make a large batch and kept it in an air tight container for up to a month no problem.

To know how to make them please watch the video:

Ingredients:

• 2 cups self raising flour
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp aniseed
• 1 tsp aniseed powder

Tips:

• You can replace the self raising flour with regular flour just add 1 tsp baking powder for each cup of regular flour
• If the dough is still dry after mixing the wet ingredients with the dry ones you can add a little bit of water 1 tbsp at a time until the dough comes together.
• Leave the dough to rest for 15 mins.
• When shaping the cookies you can make them as big or as small as you wish but keep in mind that they will get bigger after baking.
• Bake the cookies in a preheated oven at 200 C for 15 mins.
• Leave the cookies to cool completely on a cooling rack.
• Bake the cookies once again in a preheated oven at 200 C for 5 – 10 mins or until they are golden brown to your own liking.
• Keep the cookies in air tight container.

Even preparing the ma’amoul is a ritual in itself. Most of the family members come together to prepare it and sometimes neighbors come together where each one prepare her own ma’amoul while chatting and laughing with her friends.

Traditionally ma’amoul is made using semolina and ghee but there are a lot of variation to these two. As for the filling, the most widely spread is using dates paste “Ajweh”. But you can find it filled with nuts mainly walnuts or pistachios. Each one of those have its own distinct mould style to make it easy for people to identity which is which once they are baked.

To know how to make these scrumptious melt in your mouth delights watch the following video:

Ingredients:

– For the dough

• 2 kilos semolina
• 1 cup flour
• 2/3 cup powdered milk
• 2/3 sugar
• 1 tsp mehlap
• 2 tsp ground aniseeds
• 2 tsp ground fennel seeds
• 650 gram melted butter
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp instant dried yeast
• 3 cups lukewarm water

– For dates filling

• 1 kilo dates paste ** See Tips
• 1/4 cup metled ghee
• 2 tsp ground aniseeds
• 2 tsp ground fennel seeds

– For the walnuts filling

• 1 cup finely chopped walnuts
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp honey
• a bit of water ** See Tips

– For the pistachios filling

• 1/2 cup finely chopped pistachios
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp rose water

Tips:

• You can use fine or coarse semolina or a mix of both. I’ve used 1 1/2 kilo of the fine semolina and 1/2 kilo of the coarse.
• You can use melted butter or melted ghee or mix of both. You can use less of these and add oil too. But it is important the majority is of ghee or butter rather than oil.
• Make sure you rub the dry ingredients with butter long enough as this will enhance the texture of the final product. You should leave that for a whole day.
• The amount of water used in the dough might vary according to the semolina so it is best o add the water gradually while kneading the dough until it comes together.
• Leave the dough to rest for an hour in a warm place.
• Dates paste is found in international or middle eastern supermarkets. Alternatively you can make yours by ground soft dates in a food processor until it become a paste.
• You can replace ghee in the dates filling with butter or olive oil.
• When adding water to the walnuts filling just add enough to make it come together.
• Bake the ma’amoul in a preheated oven at 200 C until they become golden.
• Before serving you can dust ma’amoul with icing sugar.

to know how to make it just watch the video:

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cups almond mill
• 3/4 cups sugar
• 3 tbsp sifted cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 115 grams butter cubed
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 100 grams dark chocolate
• 3 eggs
• 1/3 cup almonds slivers.

Tips:

• You can make your own almond mill by grounded almonds in a food process until they are fine powder.
• When you melt the chocolate and butter make sure that your bowl don’t touch the surface of the simmering water underneath.
• It is preferred to use dark chocolate to get the intense taste of chocolate but you can use milk chocolate if that’s all you got and you can add more cocoa powder to the recipe.
• Before adding the eggs make sure your chocolate mix isn’t too hot to avoid the eggs curdling.
• Bake the brownies in a preheated oven at 180 C for 20-25 mins or until a skewer comes out clean when testing.
• Before you leave it to cool completely pass your knife around the edges to release the brownies and prevent its surface from breaking as it cools down.
• Make sure the brownies is completely cool before you cut it and serve it.

Biscotti is an Italian word which means baked twice as you will notice in the recipe.

To know how to make them please watch the video:

Ingredients:

– 300 grams AP flour

– 200 grams white sugar

– 2 tbsp honey

– 130 grams raisins

– 100 grams walnuts

– 2 eggs

– 85 grams butter

– 1 tsp baking powder

– 1/4 tsp baking soda

– pinch of salt

– 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

– pinch of ground cloves

– 1 tsp vanilla extract

– 1 tsp lemon zest

Tips:

– Keep an eye when toasting the walnuts as they can burn easily because of their high content of oils.

– The butter should be at room temperature to be able to whisk to a creamy consistency.

– Leave the dough to rest in the fridge for 30-45 mins until it firms up which will make it easier to handle it afterwards.

– Preheat the oven to 180 C and bake the biscotti log for 20 mins or until it is golden from the top and bottom.

– After the first bake leave the log to cool down for at least 40 mins so when you cut it won’t crumble and collapse.

– When you bake it for the second time make sure that they are golden from top and bottom.

– Leave the biscotti to cool completely before serving them or putting them in the airtight container.

To learn how to do them, please watch the video.

Ingredients:
– 3 cups all purpose flour
– 1 1/2 cup water
– 1/4 cup olive oil
– 2 teaspoons salt
– 2 teaspoons sugar
– Any seed toppings you want (i.e. sesame seeds, nigella seeds, chia seeds)

Tips:
– There is no need to knead this dough as it doesn’t have any leavening agent. You don’t need to let it proof either.
– You can use any seeds as toppings for these crackers like fennel seeds or cumin seeds. You can use sea salt too. Or you can leave them plain and they will still taste good.
– Make sure that the oven is preheated at 200 C.