Moroccan Date Cookies

What makes Moroccan date cookies different from Algerian ones is the clove powder that is added to the date paste. In Arabic they are called K3ak An-Nqqash which means "the cookies of An-Naqash"which is a tweezer tool that is used to decorate the cookies to give them their distinct design. But, there are also molds you can use to skip this tedious process.

Making these cookies is not difficult at all, however they are quite time-consuming. I sweeten them only with a little bit of honey, so there is no added sugar in them. With this recipe you will get about 42 cookies.

Ingredients

Cookie dough:

Ingredients for the Cookie dough.

• 1 kg white flour (sifted)

• 1/2 tsp baking powder

• 1/2 tsp baking soda

• Vanilla powder

• A dash of salt

• 250 gr butter (roomtemp.)

• 250 gr smen or ghee (roomtemp.)

• 2 eggs (roomtemp.)

• 3 tbsp honey

Optional:

• 2 tbsp black seeds

• 1 tsp gum arabica powder

• 1-3 tbsp orange blossom water

Date paste:

1 kg dates (pitted and cut into small pieces)

--> The best dates are soft ones that are not too fresh. My favourite picks are Sukkari and Khudri, or Lulu is also okay.

70 gr sesame seeds

50 gr soft butter

2 tbsp orange blossom water

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp clove powder

Bake at 180°C for ~12min

Instructions for the cookie dough:

0.	If you don't have ghee, then simply make your own by browning 265 gr butter in a pot. Let it cool completely before using it.
1.	In a bowl mix the eggs and honey together.
2.	In a seperate bowl sift together the dry ingredients and add the black seeds.
3.	Add the butter and ghee to the dry ingredients and gently mix it. (Don't knead but rather stir and rub to combine everything. This is the trick to getting soft cookies, bcs if you handle the dough too much, it will develop gluten and the dough will become tough.)
4.	Once there are no big lumps of butter nor ghee left, you should end up with a consistency that is like semi-wet sand. Now add the egg-honey mixture to it and as much orange blossom water as you need (I usually add two handful so about 4 tbsp orange blossom water).
5.	Let the dough rest for at least an hour and if the room temperature is very high, then put it in a cooling bag. Or leave it overnight in the fridge and the next day let it slowly soften in a cooling bag to avoid condensation.

Instructions for the date paste:

If you have old dates that are very hard then shortly steam them, just so that you can knead them into a paste, so not too long (approximately 3 min).

Add everything to the dates, except for the butter and knead it into a dough. Once you have a smooth paste, add the soft butter, it will prevent the dough from being too sticky and you can easily roll it into small balls. If you want all pieces to be equally big, you can weigh 40gr balls. Thus, you will end up with about 42 cookies. However, I don't like spending time on that, so I simply divide the dough in four pieces and then keep quartering it until I have small enough pieces. Roll them into balls and put them in the fridge for about 20 mins. Do the same with the cookie dough, so that you end up with the same ratio of cookiedough balls and datepaste balls.

Make sure the date paste is not too cold before using it, it should be soft enough so that you can easily shape it. Now, there are several ways you can assemble the dough with the paste:

The traditional way:

Form the date paste into sausages. For one cookie, roll out the cookie-dough ball between two sheets of plastic wrap and then coat the date-paste sausage with it. Now simply put it in your mold or create little fold with a Nqqash, the tweezer tool.

The Moon cake way:

This is my favourite way, bcs it is the least amount of effort and looks fancy: Coat the date-paste balls with the cookie dough and form into a ball. Now shape it with the moon cake mold.

The Makrout way:

Part the date paste in four pieces and roll each into a sausage. Do the same with the cookie dough and coat the date paste with the cookie dough. Cut each sausage into smaller pieces and adjust their shape.

Or, roll out the date paste into a rectangle. Divide the cookie dough into two pieces and roll them out into rectangles. Place the date paste in between and then cut into pieces.

In a preheated oven, bake the cookies at 180 degrees celsius for about 12min and let them cool slightly before you move them, so that they don't crumble.