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Date-Stuffed Semolina Cookies (Ma'amoul)
A combination of semolina and all-purpose flours gave the shortbread crust a rich, crumbly texture and complex flavor. Chilled butter prevented the dough from getting overly sticky, but if your kitchen is particularly warm and the dough is soft and shiny after mixing, refrigerate it for 30 minutes before proceeding. Covering the dough with plastic while making the filling and rolling it out between sheets of kitchen parchment further prevent the dough from drying out. If the dough begins to crack while shaping the cookies, gently pinch the cracks back together. You can substitute pistachios for the walnuts, but the filling will take an extra minute or so to come together into a paste. While rose water is traditional, we found a good substitution: 2 teaspoons each of orange juice and orange zest, plus 1/4 teaspoon almond extract. These cookies keep for up to three days in an airtight container at room temperature.
36
cookies
Tip
Don’t use deglet dates. Soft, plump medjool dates were essential to producing the proper consistency of the paste, and they made for a moister, more flavorful filling.
1 hour
30 minutes active, plus cooling
For the dough:
-
172
grams (1 cup) semolina flour
Directions
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01Heat the oven to 325ºF with racks in the upper- and lower-middle positions. Line 2 baking sheets with kitchen parchment.
Reviews
August 30, 2025
Date syrup question
Editor question: I really want to try date syrup and wonder what your thoughts are on switching out the honey in the filling. I have not made the cookies yet, I rated this high because. . . well. . . Milk Street recipes haven't let me down yet.
October 9, 2024
Unique and easy
I loved these. I thought they were really unique and easy to make. There’s a separate cookie (a completely different recipe) from the episode. People just need to accurately search the site to see two date stuffed cookies. It’s sad to see this getting negative reviews when it isn’t related to the episode. I didn’t try the other one because this one is so straight forward, including the shaping.
January 31, 2024
Why is this recipe different from the recipe in the video?
Which recipe should I follow? The written one or the one in the video?
January 30, 2024
Recipe different than the episode
I watched the episode and went to the web-site to get the recipe. In the episode, they add cinnamon and zest to the dough, butter to the filling and shape them quite differently. Chris seemed to like what they produced, so I'll try that way. Usually the show and the website jive. Just curious why?
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I made and LOVED this. The only change was I didn’t have yogurt and substituted 2 tablespoons of buttermilk and about a tablespoon of butter. The pastry is so melt in your mouth good, the filling is delectable. Heads up that processing the walnuts hot (as I did) leads to a good amount of oil separating from the filling. My hands were coated thickly in oil after rolling the ropes and there was maybe a tablespoon in the processor bowl. Not sure if it was because of the heat or would have happened anyway. Either way, tasty and I will make again. (I’m Arab and have had lots of ma’moul for what it’s worth - these are the best home made recipe I’ve had.)