Maamoul bars with dates – Taste of Beirut

Maamoul bars with dates

Jouman accad
Mediterranean, Middle Eastern
August 24, 2022

Sweet Pastries, Pastries/Breads,

Pastry, semolina, bars, traditional food, date paste, ma’amoul,

25-35 maamoul bars servings

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients

3 cups fine semolina

1 cup melted ghee or butter + 1/4 cup butter or ghee for the date paste

14 oz date paste OR 2 cups of dates (seeded) softened in one cup of water or orange juice (fresh).

Flavoring for the date paste: vanilla or orange blossom water, 1tsp or more, to taste

Instructions

1. In a bowl, place the semolina and pour the melted butter or ghee. Mix to combine until the mixture forms a dough. Transfer to a plastic bag or container, cover and leave in the fridge overnight or (like I did) for several months.
2. Make the filling: Now there are two possibilities, either use date paste already done and sold in packages of 14 ounces each, or make your own with dates purchased whole. I used some dates I had that were languishing in the fridge. First, you open each to make sure they are clean inside (no minuscule bugs crawling), dump the pit, and transfer them to a saucepan. Add water or juice (orange, or other that goes well with dates) and simmer gently for about 30 minutes or longer or until the dates have softened enough and get plumped-up. At this point, cool and then transfer to a food processor to purée them, adding a few dollops of butter or ghee to the mixture. I used about 4 tablespoons of butter. You can also add some spices or flavoring if you like (vanilla, rum, rose or orange blossom water for example, cardamom, cinnamon, clove)
3. So now is time to form the bars. Remove the dough from the bag, massage it a bit and cut it into two halves. Roll one half between two sheets of wax paper to fit the pan. This dough is soft so it is easy to adjust or cut off a few pieces here and there to get it to fit. Preheat the oven to 350F.
4. Spread the date paste over the bottom layer as evenly as possible, without going too close to the edge to avoid having the date paste slip through and burn on contact with the hot pan.
5. Roll the top layer between two sheets of wax paper and remove the top sheet and flip it over the date layer. Chisel the dough here and there as needed to get it as even as possible and prick it with a fork or use the fork to make a design. This is totally optional.
6. Bake for about 35 minutes or until the dough looks golden and brownish around the edges. Cool and remove carefully from the pan, as this is an extremely brittle dough, similar to shortbread.
7. Cut into bars and enjoy!

Recipe Notes

1. If using the date paste that comes in a 14-ounce package, run it through the processor as well with some melted butter and a couple tablespoons of juice or flavoring to soften the mixture as it tends to be stiff.
2. The semolina dough should be soft, but once it sits in the fridge tightly wrapped in a plastic bag, it will stiffen and the semolina will expand (especially since I left mine for months at a time). In the event the dough is too stiff or dry, a little milk or (what my grandmother used to do) some orange blossom water or rose water added one tablespoon at a time will do the trick.

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