This is a family favourite that has been passed down in my family for generations. It was originally an Ancient Egyptian recipe at least the name is derived from the late Egyptian language Coptic and there are supposedly samples of it in the carvings of the cities of Memphis and Thebes and the tools for making it dating to 3000BC.
In modern day, it is traditionally cooked by Christian Egyptian families at Easter and my Muslims at Eid. Both traditions make it to give away. I made it with my nephew at Easter.
I have been trying to get myself to cook more and one of the ways to help me was to tap into the power of nostalgia by reviving old family recipes I cooked as a kid.
If I am completely honest, my grandma never measured this recipe and it was always a little bit different, so you might notice the recipe is a little bit wishy washy and vague… well in the tradition of preserving my own destabilising confusion that I experienced as a neurodivergent child… that is somewhat intentional. I have tried to add some variations to incorporate the slightly different recipes from the other family members who used to cook it.
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour or 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of Semolina
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon of yeast
a sprinkle of salt or 1/8 teaspoon
1 bar of butter 250g
1/4 cup of icing sugar + loads for sprinkling on top
Water
Optional Ingredients
2 tablespoons of sesame seeds and
1 teaspoon of reehet il kahk spice mix???? (my grandma never used this) and/or
1 teaspoon of vanilla or
1/2 a TABLEspoon of Ground Mahleb (my grandma never used this but it was common in
1 TABLEspoon of rosewater added to the Agwa
Pitted Dates or Date Paste (“Agwa”)
Make Agwa (Date Filling)
If you’re using the pitted dates they might be tough and dry. So you can add some warm water let them soak for 15 mins, drain and then put in the food processor. You will benefit from blending until it is a paste. For best results peel the dates. (This was not done by all the members of my family.)
Sometimes if you buy date paste this next step has already been done so check ingredients. Add 30-50g of butter to the date paste / agwa. You can add a tablespoon of rosewater.
Dough
Sive the flour and icing sugar into a bowl. Add the baking powder, yeast, salt and any optional flavours or semolina. Melt the remaining butter in the microwave for 30 secs. (A mug will easily contain it). Mix the melted butter with the dry ingredients with your hands. Add a tablespoon of very warm water approximately 40 degrees to activate the yeast roll into a ball quickly and leave to sit for a while.
Cookies
Lay the dough in rectangular strips and put a small sausage of date paste (agwa) in the dough. Surround the agwa with dough and form it into a ring and pinch the top gently decoratively.
Bake at 180 degrees C for 12-20 mins until golden brown on the top and white underneath
Allow the cookies to cool before sifting icing sugar over them and be careful when moving them they are very fragile until the butter in them has cooled, that’s the main binding ingredient and while it is in liquid form there is very little holding them together.
My use of icing sugar in the mixture makes these a bit like the biscuit in Viennese whirls, but I like that better. I know my grandma used icing sugar, but since she measured using her eyes, I have never been able to get her consistency.