Wikipedia
Ma'amoul
Ma'amoul ( ma‘mūl ) are small shortbread pastries filled with dates, pistachios or walnuts (or occasionally almonds, figs, or other fillings). They may be in the shape of balls or of domed or flattened cookies. They can either be decorated by hand or be made in special wooden moulds. Ma'amoul with date fillings are often known as menenas, and are sometimes made in the form of date rolls rather than balls or cookies.
They are very popular in Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, and other Levantine countries, and highly demanded in the Persian Gulf States, where there are packed commercial versions of the pastry.
Many households keep a stock of them all year round, but they are particularly used on religious festivals.
- Muslims eat them at night during Ramadan and on the Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha holidays,
- Arab Christians eat them in the days before Lent, on Easter Sunday and on the feast of Epiphany. In the Greek and Arab Christian traditions, the cookies are shaped into rings to symbolize the crown of Jesus.
- They are also popular among Syrian, Lebanese and Egyptian Jewish communities, where ma'amoul with nut fillings are eaten on Purim, and ma'amoul with date fillings are eaten on Rosh Hashanah and Hanukkah. The Levantine Jewish version of ma'amoul differs from the Levantine or Turkish versions by being made with pure white flour and no semolina, today this variation is eaten in Israel and by Syrian and Egyptian Jewish communities in the Diaspora.