Ma'amoul (Arabian Filled Pastries)
Difficulty 3/5 Ingredients 17 Steps 12
Ma'amoul are pastries filled with dates or nuts, and they are popular throughout the Arab world. They can be made in special ma'amoul moulds, and there are three shapes of mould. The flattish circular shape is used for date ma’amoul; the round domed shape for walnut ma’amoul; the long oval for pistachio ma’amoul. Some families do not use moulds, but have special crimping tweezers for making patterns on the top of…
Ingredients
Pistachio filling
- ½ lb (250 g) finely-chopped pistachios
- ¼ lb sugar
- 1 tbsp rose water
Walnut filling
- ½ lb (250 g) finely-chopped walnuts
- ¼ lb sugar
- 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
Date filling
- 1 lb (500 g) pitted dates, chopped
- ½ teacup water
- Butter (optional)
Pastries
- 1 lb (500 g) plain white flour (up to a quarter of the flour may be replaced with fine semolina)
- 2 tbsp white sugar
- 1 pinch of salt (optional)
- Baking powder (optional)
- ½ lb (250 g) unsalted butter (Normandy butter is best)
- 1–2 tbsp rose water or orange flower water
- 2 tbsp water or milk
- Icing sugar
Steps
Fillings
- Mix chopped pistachios with sugar and rose water.
- Mix chopped walnuts with sugar and cinnamon.
- Combine chopped dates and water in pot. Bring to boil, squashing mixture against pan side with wooden spoon until approximately uniform. Mix in butter if using. Blend with electric chopper for smoother paste if desired. Cool.
Pastries
- Sift flour into mixing bowl. Mix with white sugar and pinch of salt if desired. Optionally add very small quantity of baking powder.
- Work in butter until as uniform as possible; heat butter in microwave until nearly melted, then mix with flour into crumble. Cover. Leave at room temperature several hours to overnight.
- Break up dough with fingers. Add rose water or orange flower water and 2 tbsp water or milk until malleable. Knead into smooth ball.
- Take walnut-sized ball of dough. Press thumb in. Hollow into cup with walls as thin as possible without breaking.
- Fill about three-quarters full. Pinch opening closed. Pat gently into ball without breaking walls.
- Decorate top with tweezers or fork prongs. Or pat into wooden mould, flatten exposed bottom, and bang mould face down on work surface to release pastry.
- Repeat until all dough and filling are used. If dough dries, knead in a little water or milk.
- Place on ungreased baking sheet. Bake in preheated oven at 180°C / 355°F (160°C if fan oven), 20 minutes. Do not let them harden or brown; they should look slightly moist and underdone, and harden as they cool.
- Cool. Dust with icing sugar when cold. Store in sealed plastic box or biscuit tin.
Notes from the original
- Some people use ground almonds, with or without green food colouring, instead of pistachios for the filling.
- A variant served on very special occasions is known as karabij. Make nut ma’amoul, using water rather than milk and no flower water, in the form of balls rather than in a mould, leaving them smooth without making any indentations. Arrange in a pyramid and serve with a special cream called naatiffe. This is made by boiling water, lemon juice, sugar, orange flower water and soapwort root (Saponaria officinalis) into a syrup, and folding in stiffly beaten egg whites. Some books mention bois de Panama instead of soapwort, but apparently this is a fallacy.
Source. Adapted from “Cookbook:Ma'amoul (Arabian Filled Pastries)” by Wikibooks contributors, revision of 2025-10-26, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Changes. Steps rewritten into short commands. Introduction shortened. Wiki formatting removed. This adapted recipe is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.