Maamoul: arabic delicious sweets.

  This year, as an Easter gift, I decided to translate in English and to post for you a recipe I wrote down last year in Italian (please click here to read it in italian). Have you ever heard about the maamoul?

They are little sweets with a nice scent of rosewater and you can choose if putting a hearth of nuts, dates or pistachios. They are very common in all Arabic countries. But in Lebanon, between Christians , they have been characterized as Easter sweets. On the contrary, Muslims usually prepare them for the Ramadàn.

   We prepare the mixed with coarse semolina flour (1 kg),semolina flour (1/5 kg), butter (600 g) and a local spice called mahlab.

We let it rest all night long.

The day after, when you are ready to prepare your maamoul, add to the mixed the following ingredients:

1 coffee cup of rosewater;

1 coffee cup of flowerwater;

1 teaspoon of brewer’s yeast;

2 coffee cups of sugar.

If it is a little bit hard, add some milk (never water!)

Mix them well and prepare some little balls.

My favorite ones are with a nuts heart, so I decided to prepare those.

Mince well the nuts to prepare the stuffing. For 1 kg of nuts, add 1 glass of sugar and one coffee cup of rosewater.

Work the mixed with your hands, in order to create some cups. 

Inside put the stuffing and close them.

Put them in the mould and then in the baking-pan to bake them.

Voilà, your maamoul are ready. Dust them with icing sugar and serve them to your friends to drink together a special green tea with an exotic flavor!

Happy Easter to everybody!! :-)