Ma'moul for Eid

Ma'moul by Najat (From her Youtube video, typed out by me)

3 cup fine samolina (farina or cream of wheat)
1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/8 tbsp salt


2 Sticks of butter, 1/2 pound of butter at room temp. (leave out 4 hours)


Mix soft butter with those ingredients until it's mealy and absorbed between your palms for 5 mins

cover and wrap for 6 hours on the counter, or in the fridge if you're in a hot country, take out an hour before use to become room tempt.


Date filling:

1/4 kilo date paste  (1 packaged block)
 2 tbsp softened butter
1 tbsp ground fennel
1 tbsp groudn anise

1/2 tsp ground mahlab (toasted and ground)

some oil for oiling hands while rolling.

Toast all seeds, cool and grind before use.

Mix all together with hands until it's a dough like consistancy, roll into small balls.

*Optional flavourings to use are cinnamon, cloves, cardimon, or nutmeg.


Pistachio filling:

1 1/2 cup finely ground pistachio
3/4 cup powdered sugar

1-1 1/2-2 cups orange blossom or rose water.. start with 1 tbsp and see how much is needed for it to come together as a dough.

Make little balls like with date paste.


Back to the dough:

After 6 hours leaving the samolina mixture,

Mix 1/2 tsp instant yeast over 3/4 cup warm water and 1/2 tsp sugar and let it sit until it proofs.

Add to samolina mixture:

2 tbsp powdered milk
2 tsp ground mahleb
1/2 tsp ground mystic (mestika)

Blend together well into mixture, slowly pour the yeast mixture into the grainy mixture until it comes together, never over knead the dough.   Once it comes together and you can make a little patty then cover and let it rest for 15 minutes covered with plastic wrap.

Divide the dough into small balls (as many as the fillings you have)

Heat oven to 400 F

Keep everything covered with cling wrap while working.

Fill the dough balls with the filling and shape into desired shapes.

Seperate date and pistachio on seperate trays as pistachio cooks longer.

Bake as soon as they're ready, divide oven in 3rds using oven trays and put the first tray on the bottom rack for 7-8 mins.
Once it takes a golden color remove and put on top rack another 5 mins to finish while adding new tray to bottom.

Remove and cool tray, as soon as cookies are able to be moved move them to cooling rack and once they're cold store away in a tupperware.

Finnish Meringue Swirl cookies

Before baking set your eggs and butter out on the counter. 

Ingredients for Finnish Cookie Dough: 

14 tbsp (1 and 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened at room temp

2 tbsp white sugar

2 cups all-purpose flour (I used bleached Gold Medal)

1 tsp baking soda

2 egg yolks

2 tbsp sour cream

Add all to a mixing bowl and blend, it will yield a nice soft dough.    Optional ingredient that I added was almond extract, about 1 tbsp for a nice strong flavour. 

Chill the dough in the fridge for about 30 minutes. 

Ingredients for Finnish Cookie Meringues:

2 egg whites  (at room temp) 

3/4 cup white sugar

When just about ready prepare a clean bowl with clean beaters and begin to whisk/whip the egg whites and sugar together, it should take about 7 minutes. 

If your eggs are colder it may take longer, closer to 11 minutes. 

You will also need:

Powdered Sugar to dust the finished product, optional

Parchment paper for rolling, wrapping and baking (use 1 sheet for the whole process!)

Preheat the oven and have it ready to go at 350. 

To assemble roll out a large sheet of parchment and roll the dough out 6" X  12" or half the parchement from the top as you see in the picture. 

Work fast so the dough does not get warm, now spread the meringue over the dough and begin rolling (from the bottom upwards away from you) 

Use a sharp knife and with small sawing motions you can cut a nice 1/2 " slice and lay it on a tray.  I actually find it's easier to slice if it's cold so I set it back in the fridge for about 10 minutes and in between batches while I bake off a sheet.  

Bake them for 12-15 minutes (mine were done around the 12 minute mark) then cool on the parchment (you can slide the parchment off the pan if it's too hot when it comes out of the oven and you're worried about scorching the bottoms. 

When fully cooled a few hours later or the next day dust with powder sugar and remove from the parchment. 

Serve and Enjoy! 

Recipe courtesy of Natasha's Kitchen 

Also here is an alternate recipe

For the complete cookie list this year check out the list for 2012 here

Holiday Cookies 2012

Linzer Cookie

Checkerboard Cookies (This is last year's cookie batch, the recipe for checkerboard or "swirl" as it was last year is there)

Pistachio Apricot Nests (thumb print cookies)

Nusstaler (Chocolate Dipped Hazelnut cookies) 



Gingerbread with Lemon Icing 

Ultimate Ginger Cookie 

Healthy Chewy Gingerbread cookies (Spelt flour - agave - coconut oil.  No white flour or butter)

Finnish Meringue Cookie



Elfin Shortbread Bites

Greek Clove Melt in your mouth Shortbread



Candycane Meringue 

Chocolate Dipped Chewy Coconut Macaroon 



Chocolate Crackle Cookie

Sparkle Espresso Crackle Cookie

Salted Caramel Stuffed Chocolate Cookie



Pistachio Honey Cookie (Gluten Free) 

Cinnamon Sugar Pillows (Vegan)


My tips:

Baking is serious business, and in order to pull off a large amount/variety of cookies it requires organization.  Things you will need:

- Butter, lots and lots of butter! I'm sure that's a given with cookies, I just couldn't help saying it :D
If you're working on a large number of cookies in one day then try to estimate from your recipes how much butter you're going to use and then place it all on the counter to soften (if that's what the recipe requires)
Keep your eggs on the counter too to come to room temperature.

I used over 8 pounds of butter to make all the cookies!

- A stand mixer! I borrowed my mothers pink Kitchen Aid since mine is still broken for over a year and I haven't replaced it yet :(

- A clean/organized kitchen makes all the baking a lot easier so organize before hand and keep the dry ingredients away from the sink/moisture (which brings me to my next tip)
I will also add fridge space because you will be chilling doughs and removing them from the fridge, shaping and chilling..etc.

- Have a gentle hand soap on hand, you will be washing your hands a lot between batches and after 3 days of baking my hands are in a lot of pain (they dry out from washing!)  Moisturize hands well before bed to prepare for the next day of baking.


- Keep basic ingredients like flour/sugar/brown sugar accessible (I put them in large bins) the flour needs to be scooped in measuring cups and leveled so you need the space to do this. Keep a knife and measuring cup as well as a small scooper in the bag/bin of flour for easy measuring.

- I tend to think I'm pretty environmentally friendly and I don't waste money on plasticy things but at this time of year my biggest tip is to get some ziplock bags, the large ones (.. and Cling wrap)  I can't emphasize this enough because it will save your life!! After mixing up a batch of dough just throw the ball it a ziplock and if it needs flattening out you can just use a rolling pin right over the bag after sealing and removing the air.  It's my best trick.
For checkerboard cookies I even flatten it out evenly in the bag and then chill, then I simply tear the bag and slice the large flat square disk of dough into strips, same goes for both the chocolate and white and this makes it easy to assemble/stack and create a checkerboard in minutes. So simple!

Same for crumbly shortbread doughs, just toss in the bag and press down to bring it together.  Chill, tear the bag and slice into squares then bake.  You might want to leave some doughs on the counter to warm up a tad bit, it all depends on the dough. Shortbread could "crack" if it's too cold so let it warm up a bit before slicing with a big sharp knife for clean neat slicing.

You can also use ziplock bags as piping bags!

- Tons of parchment (it is your best friend!!!) and a good amount of baking sheets !

And finally keep hydrated!!!!! I get so distracted working that I tend to forget to drink (or eat.. or even sleep!!)  so next year I will whip up a big jug of something (ice tea?) or a thermos and just keep it on hand for drinking.

Thanks to Redpath for sending me their Agave Nectar, I put it to use in my healthy gingerbread cookies!

Linzer Cookie

Linzer Cookie


Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
2 egg yolks
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup almond meal
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1/2 cup seedless strawberry jam
Powdered sugar

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 330F. Prepare cookie sheets with silpat or parchment paper.
In the work bowl of your stand mixer, cream together butter and powdered sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Add in egg yolks one at a time, then lemon zest. In a mixing bowl, combine flour, almond meal and salt, then gradually add dry ingredients to the butter mixture, beating just until blended. Divide dough into 2 equal portions. Cover and chill 1 hour.
Roll each portion to a 1/8-inch thickness on a lightly floured surface; cut with a 3-inch heart-shaped cutter. Cut centers out of half of cookies with a 1 1/2-inch heart-shaped cutter. Make sure that you have an even number of solid and cut out cookies. Bake for 15 minutes; cool on wire racks.
Spread solid cookies with jam and then sandwich with a cut out cookie. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Courtesy of A cup of Sugar.. a Pinch of Salt 

For the complete cookie list this year check out the list for 2012 here

Checkerboard cookies (preparation)

Checkerboard cookies:

5 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 lb (2 cups or 4 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups granulated sugar
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs, at room temperature

Concentrated strawberry puree

Matcha green tea powder

Cocoa powder

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. Cream the butter and sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, and then the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture and mix on low speed to just combine (you might want to cover the mixer with a towel, some flour might come up.) Finish the mixing either with your hands or a wooden spoon, being sure not to overmix. Divide the dough into 3 balls.

Pink Strawberry: Now mix in the strawberry puree until you achive a nice pink dough.
*** I boiled fresh or frozen strawberries with sugar and a some water and let it simmer on low until it was a nice thick syrup, as thick as you can get it because you don't want to introduce too much liquid into the cookie dough but instead lots of strawberry flavour in a concentrated amount.

Green Matcha: Mix 1/2-1 tbsp matcha into the dough and add a little green colouring if desired, I didn't, the matcha was enough.

Chocolate dough: Add cocoa powder for the Chocolate dough, making sure not to add too much so it's not too chocolately and bitter.

At this point I wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refridgerate until I need it.

A nice even rectangular shape will help cut the cookie later.

After two hours or the next day when ready to use, let it thaw on the counter for 15 mins.

I probably could not explain it better than the Baking Obsession blog so refer to the diagram and instructions. My mother always made these cookies on the Eid holidays so I pretty much knew how to put them together but there are different methods and just keep in mind to make them neat and as even as possible :)

There are endless shapes you can do, and I tried to stray from the checkerboard and do some fun things, hopefully I achieved that.

They made beautiful party favors, I wanted them tiny so they fit in a mason jar and tied them all up with pretty ribbon.

When baking the tiny cookies I adjusted the oven temperature a little lower and kept a very close eye on them as they cook much quicker.
The ends make odd cookies, and one made a funny cat looking cookie so I added some eyes and whiskers and it looked pretty neat. Be sure to bake off all the ends and have a little early snack for yourself! They're all super delicious.