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From the bakery

Ma'amoul

date-filled semolina cookies

Tender semolina cookies pressed in a wooden mold and filled with spiced dates — the cookie I made by the hundred at the bakery for every holiday.

Prep
1 hr
Cook
20 min
Total
1 hr 30 min
Serves
24
Level
Moderate

We made ma’amoul in trays of two hundred at the shop, the wooden molds worn smooth from years of pressing. The rule my mother gave me has never changed: they must stay pale. A browned ma’amoul is an overbaked one.

Letting the semolina rest overnight isn’t optional — it’s the difference between a sandy cookie and a tender one. Make the dough one day, shape and bake the next. They keep for two weeks in a tin, and somehow taste better on day three.

Ingredients

  • 3 cups fine semolina
  • 1 cup unsalted butter, melted
  • 1/4 cup neutral oil
  • 1/3 cup milk, warm
  • 1 tbsp rose water
  • 1 tsp instant yeast
  • 400g soft pitted dates
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • Icing sugar, to finish

Method

  1. Rub the melted butter and oil into the semolina, cover, and let it rest overnight so the grains soften.
  2. The next day, dissolve the yeast in the warm milk with the rose water and work it into the semolina to a soft dough.
  3. Blend the dates with the cinnamon to a smooth paste and roll into small balls.
  4. Take a walnut of dough, hollow it, tuck in a date ball, and seal it closed.
  5. Press each cookie into a floured ma'amoul mold, then tap it out onto a lined tray.
  6. Bake at 170°C / 340°F for 18–20 minutes, until set but barely coloured — they should stay pale.
  7. Cool completely, then dust thickly with icing sugar.