Maamoul date cookies

Method

1. The night before you want to make these, put the semolina in a bowl and stir in the melted butter, mixing well. Cover the bowl and leave overnight at room temperature.
2. The next day, mix in the salt, sugar, mahlab (or almond extract), rosewater and orange blossom water. Dissolve the yeast in 50ml warm water, set aside for 15 minutes, then stir into the mixture. Cover the bowl and leave for 1-2 hours at room temperature before using.
3. In a saucepan over a gentle heat, warm the dates, butter and cinnamon, stirring until the butter is melted and the mixture is malleable and smooth (about 10 minutes). Set aside.
4. Roll the dough into small balls – roughly 30g each – and put them in a clean bowl. Make the equivalent number of balls from the date filling, each roughly 20g, and put in a separate clean bowl. You should have about 20 balls of each, or at least equal numbers.
5. Carefully insert a ball of date filling into a ball of dough by flattening the dough in the palm of your hand, then shaping it around the filling. The dough needs to envelop the date filling until you end up with a filled sphere with any joins gently sealed. If you’re aiming for the traditional doughnut shape, use your finger to create a hole in the middle of the filled ball as you squash it into a round cookie. This can then be decorated using tweezers or simply the prongs of a fork, pressing them several times around the pastry to make groove impressions. Alternatively (and undoubtedly the most fun), gently push the filled ball into a wooden maamoul mould, then bash out onto a clean work surface. A third way is to leave the maamoul in a spherical shape and coat them with crushed pistachios. For this, put the pistachios on a shallow plate and roll the filled spheres in the crushed nuts.
6. Heat the oven to 160°C fan/ gas 4. Arrange the maamoul on a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake for 25 minutes or until just beginning to brown on the base and very top. Leave to cool before eating