Ma’amoul: Filled semolina biscuits
Small, horny things! That’s what one of my friends used to call these cookies. “Small, horny things” – the filled semolina cookies are actually called ma’amoul. He somehow couldn’t pronounce the actual name. But they are still pretty cool.
I have to admit, it took me a really long time before I dared to make these delicious biscuits myself. On the one hand, I always thought it would be a lot of work (which is not true). On the other hand, it was very difficult to get the recipe from my mother.
It wasn’t because she didn’t want to give me the recipe. Rather, it’s because she cooks and bakes by feel, as she always does. “A little bit of this and a little bit of that and this must not be missing and this must also go in. No full stops! Who is supposed to come along?
The last time, I just forced her to let me weigh everything. And – et voila – I did it! My first ma’amoul looked pretty awful, but the taste was right.
What you need is a suitable former, which you can easily order online. I now have two moulds, each with a different pattern or shape. One is round, the other oval.
The different shapes are always used by my mother, for example, to identify the two different fillings. Round means “with walnuts”, oval means “with date puree”. Of course, it’s up to you how you handle it – the main thing is that they turn out to be small, horny things 😉
Equipment
- Ma'amoul forms
Ingredients
Semolina dough
- 250 g Butter
- 500 g Durum wheat semolina
- 250 g Soft wheat semolina
- 100 g Sugar
- 1 Tl Mahleb
- 1/2 TSP Dry yeast
- 50 ml Milk lukewarm
- 3 TBSP Rose water
- 3 El Orange blossom water
Filling
- 200 g Walnut kernels
- 50 g Sugar
- 1/2 TSP Cinnamon
Zubereitung
Biscuit dough
- Melt the butter.
- Dissolve the yeast in the milk and leave for 10 minutes.
- Mix the remaining ingredients for the dough together and then add the milk with the yeast and continue to knead.
- The dough should feel firm but not hard. Add more butter if necessary.
- Cover the dough and let it rest at room temperature for about 2 hours.
Filling
- Finely chop the walnuts in a blender. Small pieces should still be recognisable. So please don't make a flour out of them 😉
- Mix the chopped walnuts with the sugar and cinnamon.
Ma'amoul
- Preheat the oven to 150 °C.
- Take 1 – 2 tablespoons of dough at a time and shape into a ball in the palm of your hand.
- Press a hollow into the ball and widen the hollow with your finger to make room for the filling.
- Pour approx. 1 tsp of filling into the hollow, close the hollow again and form into a ball again.
- Press the filled ball lightly into the Ma'amoul former, flatten the biscuit base and then tap the biscuit out of the mould.
- Bake the ma'amoul in the preheated oven for about 30 minutes.
- Remove the biscuits from the oven, leave to cool and then dust with icing sugar.
Notes
Nährwerte
You like semolina? Then why not try basbousa?
