Makroudh

Kairouan's semolina diamonds, a cinnamon and orange scented date paste sealed inside a dough worked with olive oil, fried until crisp and dropped straight into warm honey

Origin: Kairouan, Tunisia

From the journey of Date.

Makroudh is the sweet of Kairouan, the first great Muslim city of the Maghreb, and the name means diamond-shaped, which is what the finished pastry is. A coarse semolina dough, bound with olive oil rather than butter and scented with orange blossom water, is rolled into a long channel; a rope of spiced date paste is laid in it; the dough is closed over and cut on the diagonal; and the diamonds are fried and then dropped, still hot, into warm honey. Two things distinguish it from every other filled pastry in the region. The first is that the dough is semolina, worked with oil and water and rested rather than kneaded, which gives a texture that is sandy and crumbling rather than flaky. The second is that the fruit is the entire filling. There is no nut paste, no cream, and no other flavouring beyond cinnamon and a little orange; makroudh is a date pastry in a way that ma'amoul and kleicha, for all their date fillings, are not quite. It comes out of the right country. South of the Tunisian coastal plain, the oases of the Djerid and the Nefzaoua at Tozeur, Nefta, Kebili, and Douz, together with the Ziban oases of Biskra and Tolga across the Algerian border, grow Deglet Nour: the date of light, so called because a ripe fruit held up to the sun glows amber through its flesh. It is semi-dry and holds together when it is worked, which is exactly what a filling needs. Makroudh is sold from stalls and bakeries the length of Tunisia, Algeria, and eastern Libya, made in quantity for Ramadan and for weddings, and eaten at any hour with mint tea. A baked version exists and is common at home; the fried one is the original.

Ingredients

Dough

  • 500 g coarse semolina
  • 150 ml olive oil
  • 0.5 tsp fine salt
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 2 tbsp orange blossom water
  • 120 ml warm water, approximately

Filling

  • 400 g date paste, or stoned Deglet Nour dates blitzed to a paste
  • 1.5 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 orange, finely grated zest only
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 0.25 tsp ground cloves

To cook

  • 1 litre sunflower or groundnut oil, for frying

To finish

  • 400 g runny honey
  • 1 tbsp orange blossom water
  • 2 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted, optional

Method

  1. Rub the olive oil thoroughly into the semolina with your fingertips until every grain is coated and the mixture feels damp and sandy. Cover and leave to stand for thirty minutes.
  2. Stir in the salt and baking powder, then add the orange blossom water and the warm water a little at a time, gathering the dough together with your hands until it just holds. Do not knead it.
  3. Beat the date paste with the cinnamon, cloves, orange zest, and a tablespoon of olive oil until it is smooth and pliable. Roll it into ropes about 1.5 cm thick.
  4. Divide the dough into four. Roll each piece into a log about 4 cm wide and press a channel down its length with a finger or the handle of a wooden spoon.
  5. Lay a rope of date paste in each channel, then fold the dough over to enclose it completely and press the seam closed. Flatten the log gently to about 2 cm thick.
  6. Cut each log on the diagonal into diamonds about 4 cm long. Press any pattern you want into the tops with a fork.
  7. Heat the frying oil to 160C. Fry the diamonds in batches for four to five minutes, turning once, until they are a deep gold. Do not crowd the pan.
  8. Warm the honey with the orange blossom water and two tablespoons of water in a wide pan until it is runny but not hot. Lift the makroudh straight from the oil, drain them for a moment, and drop them into the honey for one minute, turning them.
  9. Lift out onto a rack set over a tray and scatter with sesame seeds if using. Leave to drain and set for an hour before serving.

Notes

For the baked version, common in Tunisian homes, bake at 180C for twenty minutes until pale gold, then dip in the honey exactly as above. The texture is drier and less rich. Deglet Nour is the correct date and is worth buying for this. A soft Medjool paste is wetter, sweeter, and harder to roll into a rope that will not burst. Algerian makroud is essentially the same pastry, sometimes soaked in a sugar syrup rather than honey and sometimes made with a proportion of plain flour in the dough. Some Kairouani bakers add a little ground aniseed or a scrape of nutmeg to the filling. The cinnamon and orange are the fixed pair.

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