Maamoul bil Loz

Levantine semolina shortbread moulds filled with rose-scented almond paste, baked for Easter and Eid

Origin: Damascus and Aleppo, Syria (the Levant)

From the journey of Almond.

Maamoul are the festival shortbread of the Levant, pressed into carved wooden moulds (tabi) and baked across Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine for the great feasts that close a season of fasting: by Christians for Easter, after the abstinence of Lent, and by Muslims for Eid al-Fitr, at the end of Ramadan. The dough is built on semolina rather than ordinary flour, worked with clarified butter and rose or orange-flower water and left to rest overnight, which gives the baked cookie its characteristic sandy, melting crumb. The filling marks the rank of the occasion. The everyday maamoul is stuffed with date paste or with walnuts; the most luxurious, and the one reserved for the grandest tables, is maamoul bil loz, filled with sweetened almond. The almond, the nut of the Levant's own ancient orchards, is blanched, ground, and bound with sugar and rose water into a fragrant paste, and the carved mould stamps each cookie with the pattern (a dome, a ring, a lattice) that traditionally signals which filling lies within. Dusted thickly in icing sugar, maamoul are piled on platters and offered to every visitor across the days of the feast, alongside small cups of bitter coffee. Making maamoul is a communal labour, the women of a household gathering to shape hundreds in an afternoon, and the carved moulds are heirlooms passed down the generations. The cookies keep for weeks in a tin, the flavour deepening as the rose water mellows into the almond and the butter.

Ingredients

Dough

400 g fine semolina
100 g plain flour
200 g ghee or unsalted clarified butter, melted and slightly cooled
2 tbsp rose water
1 tbsp orange-flower water
0.5 tsp instant yeast (for a lighter crumb; optional)
120 ml warm milk, approximately

Almond filling

200 g blanched almonds, finely ground
100 g caster sugar
1.5 tbsp rose water

To finish

icing sugar, to dust

Method

Combine the semolina and flour in a large bowl. Pour over the warm melted ghee and rub it through with your fingertips until evenly moistened. Cover and leave to rest overnight at room temperature: this is essential, as the semolina swells and softens in the butter.
The next day, dissolve the optional yeast in a little of the warm milk. Add the rose water, orange-flower water, and the yeast milk to the rested semolina, then add just enough remaining warm milk to bring the mixture together into a soft, pliable dough. Cover and rest for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the filling: mix the ground almonds, caster sugar, and rose water to a paste that holds together when pressed. Roll into small balls, about 8g each.
Take a walnut-sized piece of dough, press a hollow into it with your thumb, seat an almond ball inside, and pinch the dough closed over the filling. Roll smooth.
Press the filled ball firmly into a floured maamoul mould, level the back, then rap the mould sharply against the worktop to release the patterned cookie. Set on a lined baking tray. Repeat with the rest.
Bake at 170°C (fan) for about 18 to 20 minutes, until set and only just barely coloured at the base. They should stay pale on top: a browned maamoul is overbaked.
Cool completely on the tray, then dredge generously in icing sugar. Store in an airtight tin.

Notes

Maamoul keep for up to three weeks in an airtight tin and improve over the first few days as the rose water mellows into the almond. Re-dust with icing sugar before serving. The almond filling can be perfumed with a pinch of ground mastic or a little grated lemon zest for variation.

The Gastrographer

Name: Maamoul bil Loz
Prep time: 45 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 1 h 5 min
Yield: 30
Cuisine: Syria
Ingredients: 400 g fine semolina; 100 g plain flour; 200 g ghee or unsalted clarified butter, melted and slightly cooled; 2 tbsp rose water; 1 tbsp orange-flower water; 0.5 tsp instant yeast (for a lighter crumb; optional); 120 ml warm milk, approximately; 200 g blanched almonds, finely ground; 100 g caster sugar; 1.5 tbsp rose water; icing sugar, to dust

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control