Mama's Maamoul (Date-Filled Semolina Cookies)

Ingredients

Dough

• 3 kg semolina (medium, fine and coarse)
• 4 cups ghee
• 1 cup vegetable or sesame oil
• 1 tbsp ground mastic
• 1/2 tsp ground mahlab
• 1 tbsp kaak spice mix
• 1 small cup sugar
• 1 tsp yeast per kilo of semolina

Filling

• 3 kg date paste
• 2 tbsp cinnamon
• Ground nutmeg
• 1 tbsp kaak spice mix

Method

1. Melt the ghee, pour it over the semolina and rub it in by hand only.
2. Leave it soaking in the ghee for 24 hours.
3. Before shaping, add a sprinkle of water every half hour so it absorbs and becomes easy to knead.
4. Add the mahlab, kaak spice, mastic, oil and sugar and rub together with your palm. Divide the dough into portions, add a little yeast to each and work it in, adding warm water as needed until it is easy to shape, neither smooth nor fully firm.
5. Filling: pit and grind the dates, add the cinnamon, kaak spice and nutmeg and form into small balls.
6. Take a piece of dough, soften it in your hands, roll into a ball, open it with your thumb, insert the date filling, close, round and press with your finger. Decorate with a mold or by pinching a pattern.
7. Preheat the oven to 180°C and bake from below then above until golden. Dust with powdered sugar.