Maamoul — Print Recipe — The Culinary Codex

Delicate, buttery Saudi shortbread cookies filled with spiced date paste, pressed into ornate wooden molds to create beautiful patterns, a staple of Eid celebrations.

Ingredients

3 cups fine semolina
1 cup all-purpose flour
250g butter, melted
1/2 cup milk
2 tbsp rose water
2 tbsp orange blossom water
1 tsp yeast
500g date paste
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp nutmeg
Powdered sugar for dusting

Instructions

1 Mix semolina and flour, pour in melted butter, and rub together, then add milk, rose water, orange blossom water, and yeast, kneading into a smooth dough, and let rest for one hour.
2 Prepare the filling by kneading the date paste with cinnamon, cardamom, and nutmeg until evenly spiced, then roll into small balls.
3 Take a portion of dough, flatten in your palm, place a date ball in the center, seal and shape, then press into a decorative maamoul mold and tap out gently.
4 Arrange the shaped cookies on a baking sheet and bake at 180C for 15 to 18 minutes until lightly golden on the bottom but still pale on top, then cool and dust with powdered sugar.

Did You Know?

Families across Saudi Arabia spend days before Eid making hundreds of maamoul cookies, with grandmothers passing down their prized wooden molds through generations as family heirlooms.