🍪 Date cookies
Date cookies are soft, buttery cookies with a sweet filling of date paste scented with cardamom. The dough is short and crumbly, the centre dense and chewy, and the flavour gently spiced rather than very sugary. They are a common sweet with tea and Arabic coffee, at home, in bakeries and on festive trays.
Diets
Allergens
Contains (in a typical recipe):
What it is made of
Recipe
Ingredients
- 250 g flour
- 150 g butter, soft
- 40 g sugar
- 3–4 tbsp cold water
- 250 g date paste
- 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
- A pinch of salt
Method
- Rub the butter into the flour, sugar and salt, then add just enough water to make a soft dough; rest 15 minutes.
- Mix the date paste with the cardamom and roll into small balls.
- Flatten a piece of dough, wrap it around a date ball and shape into a round cookie.
- Bake at 180 °C for 15–18 minutes until lightly golden at the base; cool before serving.
How to make it lighter
- Make the cookies small, about 30–40 g each, and count them before eating.
- One or two cookies with black coffee is a better fit than a whole plate.
- Use slightly less butter in the dough and keep the date filling generous.
History
Cookies filled with date paste are baked across the Arab world, from Gulf date cookies to the Levantine maamoul made for Eid and Easter.
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Values are estimates per 100 g for a typical recipe; home and restaurant versions vary. Diets and allergens are worked out from the ingredients of a typical recipe — always check with whoever cooked the dish. Not medical advice. Nutrition data: Me Nutrition dish database v13. How we count →