Grape molasses cookies
April 18, 2017 • Category: Cookies
I have been meaning to try making these cookies, simply because I consume a ton of them. They are popular in the Chouf mountains where folks like to boast of their ancestral traditions and love for their land. Grape molasses is made by taking lots of grapes (the sweetest variety) to the community press and boiling the juice with some local clay (called hawwara) and then whipping it to a golden color. It’s lovely and delicious and looks super luscious like a thick caramel. After a year or so, the “whipped” aspect flattens out and the molasses reverts back to a thick dark brown syrup.
Grape molasses cookies
Joumana Accad Mediterranean, Middle Eastern April 18, 2017 Cookies, kaak, lebanese, cookies, grape molasses, ring cookies, tagged,12 or more servings
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 12 minutes
Passive Time: 45 minutes
Ingredients
2 cups white flour (all-purpose)
1 cup semolina flour (fine aka ferkha)
1/4 cup dry milk powder (optional)
3/4 tsp sea salt
1 T baking powder
2/3 cup demerara sugar (raw cane sugar)
1/2 tsp mahlab
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 cup grape molasses (more, as needed)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into dice
1/3 cup olive oil (more as needed)
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tsp orange blossom water
Rind of one lemon
Instructions
- Place all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix. Flours, milk powder, turmeric, mahlab, salt, baking powder, sugar.
Mix all the dry ingredients well. Add in the bowl of a food processor some diced butter and process till the butter is no longer visible. Sprinkle the lemon juice and add the olive oil in a stream until the dough is crumbly and beginning to hold together.
Add the grape molasses in a stream until the dough holds together well and add the orange blossom water. - Transfer the dough into a large bowl and knead it briefly, if it feels moist and easy to work with, start breaking it into small balls. If it feels dry, add more lemon juice and grape molasses one tablespoon at a time until the dough is moist, shiny, and does not fall apart.
- Form balls and roll them between your palms until you form a short rope, about 3 inches in length. tie the ends to form a ring and sprinkle sesame seeds on top.
- Bake in a 325F oven for about 10-12 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown and somewhat firm. They will firm up after cooling.
Hello! All photos and content are copyright protected. Please do not use our photos without prior written permission. If you wish to republish this recipe, please rewrite the recipe in your own unique words and link back to the source recipe here on tasteofbeirut.com. Thank you!
Comments
6 Comments • Comments Feed
Marie says:
Where can you find the grape molasses?
Is it the same than debs?
On April 18, 2017 at 4:28 pm
Krista Bjorn says:
Those are beautiful!! I love the sesame coating. 🙂
On April 19, 2017 at 7:28 am
humble_pie says:
Joumana, is it really you? you’re back at last? how fabulous. awesome. can’t think of anyone else i’d rather see.
it’s not the recipes. It’s the social setting. The cultural anthropology of food. Here we are in faraway north america, getting a blast of life in the middle east as strong as that dense black coffee in little beakers … the coffee you couldn’t resist so you drank an entire week’s worth of caffeine : >)
that instagram account looks fantastic. Bravo. You are a marvellous photographer.
PS the recipes are great, thankx for all of them
On April 20, 2017 at 8:34 am
Joumana Accad says:
@humble_pie Glad to be back as well! Thank you so much for your appreciation it warms my heart!
On May 28, 2017 at 7:14 pm
buy college essay says:
These are really mouth watering, simple, and must try recipe. I really loved this very much. Thank you so much for sharing this here. I will definitely try these recipes this weekend for sure and will sure my opinion about this very soon. Keep posting such healthier and must try recipes.
On June 21, 2017 at 5:18 am
Yvette alam says:
Your recipes are great
On October 13, 2017 at 9:33 am