Ma'amoul (Nut-filled Cookies)
Traditional Middle Eastern shortbread cookies filled with a fragrant mixture of walnuts, cinnamon, and sugar. These delicate treats are finished with a dusting of confectioners' sugar and feature decorative patterns on top.
Ingredients
- •2½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- •½ cup semolina flour
- •10 ounces margarine
- •2 teaspoons vegetable oil
- •¼ cup water
- •1½ cups ground walnuts
- •1 teaspoon cinnamon
- •½ cup sugar
Cooking Instructions
- 1.
1. For the dough, place the flour, semolina, margarine, and oil in a food processor equipped with a steel blade. Add the water gradually, pulsing until a soft dough is formed. Cover and set aside for 10-15 minutes in the refrigerator.
15 min
- 2.
2. For the filling, combine the walnuts with the cinnamon and sugar.
5 min
- 3.
3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
10 min
- 4.
4. Either use the ma'amoul mold described above or take a piece of dough about the size of a walnut. Roll it into a ball and hollow out the center. Inside, place a heaping teaspoon of walnut filling. With your hands, mold the dough closed.
20 min
- 5.
Continue with the rest of the dough.
15 min
- 6.
5. Place the cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet. With the tines of a fork or tweezers with a serrated edge, make designs on the top of each cookie, being sure not to penetrate the crust.
15 min
- 7.
6. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes. Do not brown; the cookies should look white. Cool. When hard, roll in confectioners' sugar.
30 min
