Ma'amoul

Ingredients

• 400g fine semolina
• 100g plain flour
• 200g ghee, melted
• 50g caster sugar
• 1/2 tsp ground mahlab
• 1/4 tsp fine salt
• 1 tsp instant dried yeast
• 120ml warm whole milk
• 2 tbsp orange blossom water
• 1 tbsp rose water
• 300g soft date paste
• 1 tbsp ghee, for the date filling
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 150g walnuts, roughly chopped
• 50g caster sugar, for the walnut filling
• 1 tbsp orange blossom water, for the walnut filling
• 30g icing sugar, for dusting

Before you cook

• Mix the semolina, plain flour, mahlab, salt and 50g of caster sugar in a large bowl.
• Melt the 200g of ghee and let it cool until it is warm rather than hot.
• Stir the yeast into the warm milk and leave it for five minutes.

Steps

1. Pour the warm ghee over the semolina mixture and rub it in with your fingertips until every grain feels damp and the mixture smells nutty.
2. Cover the bowl and leave it at room temperature overnight, or for at least four hours, so the semolina softens.
3. Add the milk and yeast, the orange blossom water and the rose water, and work the mixture with your hands until it forms a dough that holds together when squeezed.
4. Cover the dough and rest it for thirty minutes.
5. Knead the date paste with the tablespoon of ghee and the cinnamon until it is smooth and pliable.
6. Roll the date paste into twenty balls the size of a large marble.
7. Mix the chopped walnuts with the 50g of caster sugar and the tablespoon of orange blossom water.
8. Heat the oven to 180C fan-off and line two baking trays with parchment.
9. Take a golf-ball-sized piece of dough and hollow it into a cup with your thumb, turning it as you press.
10. Tuck a date ball or a heaped teaspoon of the walnut mixture into the hollow and pinch the dough closed over it.
11. Press the filled ball firmly into a floured ma'amoul mould, or flatten it gently and mark the top with tweezers or a fork.
12. Knock the mould sharply against the edge of the counter so the cookie drops out, and set it on a tray with the patterned side up.
13. Shape the rest of the cookies the same way, spacing them a few centimetres apart.
14. Bake them for fifteen to eighteen minutes, until the bases are pale gold and the tops are still almost white.
15. Cool the cookies completely on the trays, as they are fragile while warm.
16. Dust the walnut-filled cookies heavily with icing sugar and leave the date ones plain.