Phoenician Gourmet

Hello ladies, I am very sorry I didn't reply earlier.  Here are the requested recipes.  Try them and let me know..                  

Namourah :

Ingredients:

2 tablespoon tahini (sesame paste)

 4 cups semolina or cream of wheat

 21/2 cup plain yogurt or buttermilk

1 cups sugar

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 cup blanched almonds

1/2 cup sweet butter

1 ½ tspn baking soda

Syrup –Katter

3 cups sugar

1 3/4 cup water

1 tbsp or more fresh lemon juice

1 tbsp orange blossom water

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease a 13 x 9 inch cake pan with the tahini. Mix the semolina, yogurt, sugar, melted butter,  and the levening, Pour the mixture into the pan a greased pan using the sesame tahini,   spread evenly.  Cut the Namourah into Squares or Diagonals and insert the almond in each piece, Tap the tray on the counter to make it level and get rid of air pockets.   Namourah must rest for 30 minutes so the Semolina soak the liquid and opens up . 

Preheat the oven at 375F and bake the Namourah for 35 minutes , take it out, cut the lines again, then lower the heat to 350F and continue cooking  until golden brown.   Namourah will get hard if you over bake it so keep a watch over it , oven tempts vary.
Pour the cold syrup on top and let it soak and rest for at least 4 hours and preferable if more before cutting.

Syrup:

Combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan, and heat over medium until   boiling, about 10 minutes. Once thickened, add the lemon juice and orange blossom water. Stir and remove from the heat right away. Let cool to room temperature. Always pour cold syrup over hot desserts.

 p.s. you can mix with 1/2 cup of coconut with the batter if you like. 

Maamoul  2

for this Recipe the ingredients does not change, you can devide the recipe in half, but i do this recipe as i devide my dough into three flavour some stuffed with dates, some with walnuts and almonds and some with pistachios

1. 2500 gms of Semolina (at the Middle Eastern Stores you can find coarse and fine Semolina - we mix the two together, if not available use the store semolina wihich is the finer kind)
2. 1000gms of sweet butter
3. 1 cup of granulated sugar
4. ground mix spices (1 tsp of cinnamon, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1/4 tsp nutmeg,1/4 cardamon, 1/2 tsp of all spice,)
5. 1 tsp mahleb you find it at the middle eastern store)  
6. 1 tbsp of instant yeast 
7. 1/2 cup of a mix orange blossom and rose water

Direction

Dissolve the butter and the sugar to melt but not boil, add the spices, add the butter over the semolina mix using a very big bowl to mix the ingredients, and making sure all the semolina flour is soaked with the butter and spices cover the dough with a plastic wrap, and leave it on the table overnight or if you mix it in the morning, wait 6 hours at least for the semolina to soak all the liquid.

the second day, sprinkle the yeast over the semolina, and have the 1/2 of flavoured water near you, dip your hand in the flavoured water, and knead the semolina dough, its not like you are doing a bread just to soften the dough adn make it pliable to work with. you might need some warm water as well to knead and soften the semolina.  dont worry if you find your dough very wet the semolina will soak it all within 30 minutes.

date stuffing:

for 1 kg of dough you need 1 kg of dates, you can put your dates in a glass bowl, add 1/4 cup of butter over it, and around 1tbsp of the above spices ,or yu can use only cinnamon or nutmeg if you prefer. i put them in the microwave and 1 minutes on high they turn very soft and you can knead them to make them smooth without thread to work with.  I roll a piece of dough like a thick rope and flaten it with my hand, then i roll a piece of date to fill the semolina rope and close around it, and make sure the semolina dough covers the dates then i cut them into finger size shapes, or if you have maamoul molds (you can buy them at a Middle Eastern Store or a pastry Tweezer and design the maamoul you shaped by hand, )

Pistachios stuffing

600gm of pistachios will fill 1 kg of semolina, you chop half of your pistachio in a food processor and the other half by hand and combine them, or chop them in the machine but pulse so you keep them from turning to ground nuts. i add 1.5 cup of powder sugar over the pistachios and 2 tablespoons each of orange blossom and rose water and mix well and stuff the maamoul and turn the dough a diagonal , if you know how to stuff Lebanese kibbe , you take a piece of dough and dip your finger with water and insert it and start turning to open it and the rest of the fingers are surrounding the dough to keep it from flatten and takes the shape of an egg, stuff and then close the top by gathering the dough closer to close, if you have a mold its easy open a dough stuff close and put in the mold and tap to release. but if not see my picture the pistachios are dusted with powder sugar, i used a twizzer to decorate.

the squares and rounds maamoul are done by mold, and the rest by hand using a tweezer to decorate them, and i myself prefer the tweezer, instead of the molds.

walnuts and almonds stuffing

600gm of nuts ,you can use either one or mix and you can also add hazelnuts or cashews, anything you want.  the same mix as the pistachios .

bake them at 350F until lightly cold.  these cookies are time consuming specially for someone who never tried them before, but the results are very rewarding,

these cookies freeze very well, i put them in a double freezer bag and they last 4 months, my mom uses french jars with rubber band and she keeps them in the jars . Today Sunday 27Apr,2008 is our Orthodox Easter.

I am interested to know the results, you can email me if you need any help

arlettelandry@hotmail.com

good luck Ladies.  Arlette  

i  

this is a tray of soft pretzels just out of the oven.

Hello Ladies, I gave you the original recipe for the Lebanese Maamoul which we do them as Easter Cookies, or any celebration.

but i played with the recipe keeping the same ingredients,i used the same amount of semolina and butter but cut the sugar, kept the spices, and spreading the dough in a pyrex pan( 9x13), spread it 1/4 inch thick and cover it with the stuffing same as above, then another layer of dough, sprinkled sesame seeds on top, and baked it in the oven .

i did put the pyrex pan in a baking sheet, as the bottom will cook quicker than the top, i had cold syrup ready for me, cold.  when the maamoul is cooked , i took it from the oven and added 1 cup of syrup on top if the stuffing is dates, and 1.5 cup if its nuts. when the maamoul soak all the syrup cut it into squares or bars,

you have the same flavor for half the pain.

i have a picture of maamoul stuffed with dates to show you.

maamoul in a tray  

sorry ladies,

the amount i gave in the recipe fit in a bigger than 9x13 baking plate.  other wise the namourah will be too thick .