pistachio-filled semolina pastries

Throughout the Middle East, souks are divided by trade, with each trade having its own section. In Damascus’s Madhat Pasha souk, located on Straight Street where Saint Paul had his epiphany, there is a section devoted to kitchen equipment, with shops selling everything from whisks to pots and pans to baking equipment—basically the Arab equivalent of Sur la Table. There are only four shops and in each there are men busy shaping metal sajs (inverted woks on which to bake flat breads) or carving wooden molds called tabe’, used to shape ma’mul, a confection associated with Ramadan for Muslims and Easter for Christians. The molds are beautiful, with intricate geometric patterns. Each shape announces the filling inside the pastry: oval and pointed pastries are filled with pistachios, round and pointed are filled with walnuts, and round and flat have date filling. The recipe I give here is for the pistachio-filled ma’mul. Don’t worry if you don’t have the mold to shape them. You can do this by hand and use tweezers to pinch patterns on the surface.

Sweet Soapwort Dip is great with the pastries; you eat them dipped in a little bit (or a lot, in my case) to add creaminess and sweetness. If you are going to serve them together, there is no need to sprinkle the cookies with confectioners’ sugar, as suggested. You can also serve the dip with any other cookies that take your fancy, as long as they are not too sweet.

MAKES ABOUT 15 PASTRIES

pastry

1 cup [175 g] semolina (regular, not fine)

2 Tbsp unbleached all-purpose flour

2 Tbsp superfine sugar

¹/₈ tsp fast-acting (instant) yeast

5 Tbsp [75 g] unsalted butter, at room temperature

1¹/₂ Tbsp orange blossom water

1¹/₂ Tbsp rose water

filling

³/₄ cup [100 g] hulled unsalted pistachios

2 Tbsp superfine sugar

³/₄ tsp orange blossom water

³/₄ tsp rose water

Confectioners’ sugar or Sweet Soapwort Dip (page 59)

To make the pastry: Mix the semolina, flour, sugar, and yeast in a mixing bowl. Add the butter and, with the tips of your fingers, work it in until fully incorporated. Add the orange blossom water and rose water and knead until the pastry is smooth and elastic. (Add a drop more rose water if you find the pastry a little dry.) Place in a lightly floured bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest in a cool place for 1¹/₂ hours.

To make the filling: Using a spice grinder or small food processor, grind the pistachios to a medium-fine texture. Mix the ground pistachios and sugar in a mixing bowl. Add the orange blossom water and rose water and mix well.

Preheat the oven to 400°F [200°C]. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.

Pinch off a small piece of pastry and roll it into a ball the size of a walnut. Place it in your palm and flatten with your fingers, until you have an oval about 3 in [7.5 cm] long, about 2 in [5 cm] wide in the middle, and about ¹/₄ in [6 mm] thick. Place 1 tsp of pistachio filling in a line down the middle lengthwise and pinch the dough together to close it over the filling.

Carefully shape the filled pastry into a finger with a fat middle and if you have a tabe’, lightly press the pastry into it, leaving the pinched side on the outside (so that when you invert the molded pastry, it is on the bottom). Place the fingers of your other hand under a work surface with your palm protruding. Invert the mold over your hand and tap the mold lightly against the work surface to release the pastry into your palm. Slide the pastry onto the prepared baking sheet. Fill and shape the remaining pastry in the same way. You may have to scrape the inside of the mold every now and then in case some pastry sticks to it. If you don’t have a tabe’, gently shape the pastry between the palms of your hands to create a flat oval bottom, mounding the ma’mul into a rounded sloping shape. You should end up with about 15 pastries, each measuring about 3 in [7.5 cm] long, 1 in [2.5 cm] wide in the middle, and 1¹/₄ in [3 cm] high.

Bake the pastries until cooked and barely colored, 12 to 15 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack. Let cool, and then sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar before serving.