Maamoul is made near the end of Lent and Ramadan, just before Easter and Eid al Fitr. This year, however, the biscuit is extra sweet because both religions eat it at the same time.
A sweet smell wafts through the air this spring along the ancient streets of Jerusalem and Bethlehem. People’s homes are buzzing with activity as extended family members and neighbours gather to make a biscuit-like treat that is very special to both Muslims and Christians.
“You can’t have Easter without maamoul because it brings happiness,” said Rawan Ghattas, a Bethlehem-based Christian who works with renowned local chef Fadi Kattan.
Rawan Bazbazat, a Muslim art teacher and jewellery maker from Jerusalem, has been baking the sweet with her mother since she was a child, just like Ghattas. “We always make maamoul for Eid al Fitr. This holiday would be incomplete without it “According to Bazbazat. Maamoul is made with semolina and ghee (though butter can be substituted) and is flavoured with mahlab (crushed cherry seeds found inside the pits) and mastic (also known as Arabic Gum), which is acacia tree resin.
While the delicate shortcrust-style sweet melts in your mouth, the design adds an extra layer of decadence. The dough is either stuffed with pistachios drizzled with rosewater, walnuts mixed with sugar and cinnamon, or dates ground to a paste with a little oil or butter before baking. “The date maamoul is like having a cream-filled biscuit, but less fluffy,” Anissa Helou, author of Feast Food of the Islamic World, told me.
Each of the three flavours is then placed in its own wooden mould, known as a qalab, or formed by hand with a spiked tong known as a malqat. The traditional date maamoul has a circular shape with a flat top; the pistachio version has a pointy ellipse shape; and the walnut-flavored biscuit has a smaller circle with a domed top.
In the days leading up to Easter and Eid al Fitr, Christian and Muslim families across the Palestinian territories and the greater Middle East make maamoul, as well as its simpler cousin ka’ak – a flat, round biscuit made from the same dough – each year.
Easter, observed this year on April 17, is the Christian holiday that follows Lent – an observance commemorating Jesus’ 40-day fast in the desert, during which believers traditionally abstain from animal products and alcohol for the same number of days. Eid al Fitr, which begins on May 2 this year, is an Islamic celebration commemorating the end of Ramadan, a month of fasting from sunrise to sunset.
You go to the Old City [of Jerusalem] and you find both the Christians and Muslims fasting – it’s special
“This year, Ramadan and Lent are converging, which is nice; you can go to the Old City [of Jerusalem] and see both Christians and Muslims fasting – it’s unique,” said Bazbazat.
The jobs for making the maamoul are divided into groups when the extended family is all together in one house. Some make the dough (which is refrigerated for one day before being formed), some make the designs, and some are experts at knowing when to take the sweet out of the oven.
Maamoul is a beautiful memory for many people who celebrate Easter or Eid al Fitr.
“We are three families plus all the neighbours; we make the maamoul in one of the houses every day,” Ghattas explained. expressing her feelings about what she sees as a happy and communal celebration.
In the run-up to Eid al Fitr, Bazbazat and her five sisters, aunt, cousin, mother, and grandmother prepare maamoul in their family home. “Sometimes you’re very hungry while making it – you want to taste everything – but no one can touch it until the first day of Eid, when you can eat whatever you want,” she explained.
Ghattas recalls trying to shape dough into flowers as a child, inspired by her mother, who makes beautiful decorations. At midnight, to commemorate the end of 40 days of fasting, she and her family raise coloured hard-boiled eggs and knock them together (the goal being to be the last person left with an unbroken egg), and then eat them along with the long-awaited maamoul.
Muslim families typically spend the first day of Eid together and, as is customary, send plates of ka’ak and maamoul dusted with powdered sugar to their neighbours – including Christians, who send the biscuits to their neighbours at Easter. The next day, they welcome visitors into their homes and serve coffee alongside the delectable sweet. “Christians and Muslims in Jerusalem have a lot to talk about. They share the same houses and live in the same city. We are similar “According to Bazbazat.
Some of the main ingredients of maamoul, such as dates and walnuts, are grown locally in the Palestinian territories. The best dates, Mejdool, come from Jericho and the farms in the Jordan Valley, east of the West Bank. While most people have walnut trees in their gardens, they also grow abundantly on the region’s hilltops, from Al-Khalil (also known as Hebron) to Jenin.
Fadi Kattan, an internationally recognised chef and the founder of Bethlehem’s Fawda Restaurant & Café, which showcases traditional recipes and local ingredients with a modern twist, associates the smell of maamoul with memories of his grandmother making it when he was a child.
“Every attempt I made to decorate ka’ak and maamoul would ruin whatever she and her neighbours were doing,” Kattan recalled, adding that he was allowed to crush the walnuts.
He describes the smell as “like something being caramelised, but there’s nothing being caramelised” as the ghee cooks with the mastic and mahlab. There is no substitute for the flavour of mastic in baking, and as Kattan stated, “An uncompromising one,” it says. “You can substitute orange blossom or rose petal water, but it won’t be the same. Mastic has a sweet, earthy flavour that I can’t put into words “He stated. “If you ever played with pine trees as a kid, that little sap that would seep out when it was cut, that’s what it tastes like.”
