Kleicha — Print Recipe — The Culinary Codex

Tender, crumbly cookies filled with a spiced date paste perfumed with cardamom and rose water. These beloved Saudi sweets are the essential accompaniment to Arabic coffee at every gathering.

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour
200g butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cardamom
1 tbsp rose water
1 egg
300g pitted dates
2 tbsp butter for filling
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cardamom for filling

Instructions

1 Cream the softened butter with sugar until fluffy. Add the egg, milk, rose water, and cardamom, mixing until smooth.
2 Sift flour with baking powder and fold into the wet mixture until a soft, pliable dough forms. Rest for 15 minutes.
3 Prepare the filling by cooking dates with butter, cinnamon, and cardamom over low heat, mashing into a smooth paste. Cool completely.
4 Roll the dough to 3mm thickness. Cut into 8cm circles. Place a teaspoon of date paste in the center of each circle.
5 Fold the dough over the filling and seal the edges, pressing with a fork or using a kleicha mold to create decorative patterns.
6 Place on lined baking sheets and bake at 180C for 15-18 minutes until lightly golden. Cool on a wire rack before serving.

Did You Know?

During Eid, Saudi families exchange trays of homemade kleicha as gifts, and the quality of a household kleicha is a point of great pride.