Ma'amool b'jowz - sweet walnut cakes

6 Servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
Stephen Ceideburg
750 grams Semolina
1 cup Sugar
500 grams Butter
500 grams Walnuts
½ cup Sugar
¼ cup Cold water
½ teaspoon Rosewater

Directions

Mix thoroughly in a large bowl 750 g semolina and 1 cup sugar. Melt 500 g butter until bubbling, then blend it into the semolina-sugar mixture. Knead well then set aside for at least one hour or up to 24.

Knead the mixture again then pour in enough boiling water to make a soft, pliable dough (wear rubber gloves so you can handle the hot mixture).

Crush 500 g walnut pieces finely (this can be done in a food processor) and add to ½ a cup of sugar. Mix ¼ of a cup of cold water with half a teaspoon of rosewater (any Lebanese or Asian food store) and mix the liquid into the walnut-sugar mix- ture.

Mould the pastry into balls about 5 cm in diameter. Make a cavity in the centre of each ball with your finger and fill with walnut mixture. Close the pastry over the top of the filling and flatten the stuffed pastry ball a little between your hands. Make a design on top with the tines of a fork

Place these cakes on an ungreased baking tray and cook at 230 C until lightly browned, approximately 20 minutes. Store in an airtight container and sift icing sugar generously over the top of each layer of cakes.

Posted by Stephen Ceideburg

From an article by Meryl Constance in The Sydney Morning Herald, 4/6/93. Courtesy Mark Herron.

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