By: Mai Kakish, Chicago-area editor, writer, cook, and grocery shopper behind the blog Almond & Fig

Food in Palestine is not only a feast for the eyes but a journey into century-old traditions where each meal has a story, is prepared with nafas (نَفَس‎), is served in abundance, and is enjoyed with love.

Palestinian culture revolves around food, from day-to-day life to weddings and celebrations.

During this spiritual season of Easter and Ramadan, it is important to think about our loved ones who are facing so much injustice. It is especially important to think about our families in the Gaza Strip, where more than half of the population were expelled from their original homes. The occupation, Israeli military airstrikes, and the complete blockade of Gaza have pushed over a million Palestinians under the poverty line without access to life’s basic needs like food, medicine, and education.

With the spirit of the Easter season, I am honored to team up with UNRWA USA as a “Knafeh Ambassador.” In hopes to take part in bettering the lives of Palestine refugees and shedding light on the important work that UNRWA does. Over a million refugees in Gaza are relying on UNRWA to meet their basic food needs.

Growing up, Easter was the most sacred time of the year. The week leading up to Easter requires lots of preparations and many rituals. Many church services and candle vigils take place during Holy Week. And many preparations take place at home, too. From planning the Easter menu to making ma’amoul cookies to coloring eggs and picking Easter outfits.

My grandmothers often prepared the cookies. The cookies are usually made a few days before Easter, then stored in aluminum tins to be served to guests and family on Easter Sunday. Plates full of ma’amoul are often exchanged among neighbors and friends each taking pride in the texture, and presentation of their cookies. The women would secretly judge each other’s cookies.

Ma’moul Cookies

Everyone takes pride in their family recipe. For Christian families, the ma’amoul cookies are formed into different shapes each shape is symbolic of Jesus Christ’s suffering. It’s said that the round ones stuffed with dates resemble the crown of thorns they placed on Jesus’ head to be reminded of his sacrifice and crucifixion. The dome-like ones stuffed with walnuts and cinnamon symbolize the stones that were thrown at Jesus. And the long cookies stuffed with an aromatic pistachio paste represent the tomb where Jesus's body was buried after his crucifixion.

The cookies are made with fine semolina flour, and the best sweet butter you can find. They are then stuffed with dates, walnuts, or pistachios, flavored with mastic (a sun-dried resin that exudes from the bark of a Mediterranean tree), and mahlab, (a spice made from the seeds of a species of cherry), orange blossom, and rosewater. Each cookie is pinched by hand or by using wooden molds with various shapes. The task of making these cookies is very meticulous and time consuming. It was a job often enjoyed when family and friends or neighbors gathered. Every helper takes so much pride in their decorating skills.

For me today, these delicate fragrant cookies are a passport for my children to connect with family, culture, and tradition. Some things are best left as they are, as they carry so many stories for generations to come. As a little girl, I sat by my grandmother as she watched and guided my cookie pinching skills.

Be it Easter or Eid, holidays in the Levantine region of the Middle East are incomplete without these delicious buttery cookies. The cookies serve as a perfect treat after a month of fasting during Ramadan or the 40 days of Lent before Easter.

“Be it Easter or Eid, holidays in the Levantine region of the Middle East are incomplete without these delicious buttery cookies. The cookies serve as a perfect treat after a month of fasting during Ramadan or the 40 days of Lent before Easter.”

Good Friday (Al Jumaa al Hazineh)

Is usually the last day of fasting for Lent. Jumaa Hazineh in Arabic translates to “Sad Friday”. Growing up, we went to church on Good Friday and people often wore black. The mass often was quiet and sad, it’s the day Christ was crucified and nailed to the cross.

When I was about seven years old, I stood in the long line to greet our pastor after the Friday mass and when I got to the pastor I shook his hand and in the spirit of sadness, I said “I am so sorry for your loss” — the people behind me roared with laughter. My family still reminds me of my statement ‘til this day!

Saturday of Light (Sabat Al Noor)

When I was a teenager, living and studying in Jerusalem, we would often go to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the old city for the ceremony of Holy Fire on the Saturday before Easter. It’s a huge gathering of Christians from all over the world to witness the emergence of candles lit by what's believed to be a miracle in the tomb of Jesus. The light was transformed to churches across the country and often welcomed by the Scout troops playing pipes and hitting the drums. To me, that sound and rhythm of the drums and marching bands is the sound that marks the beginning of Easter.

Palestinian Christians of all denominations from all over the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip have attended these spiritual ceremonies for generations in what has always been a major community event in the past. Unfortunately, with the occupation, the wall, checkpoints, the siege on Gaza and all the travel bans Israel imposes, many Palestinians from the West Bank, and especially our Christian families in Gaza, don’t ever get permits and are often denied from attending these traditional and spiritual celebrations. Many people don’t know Christians in Gaza exist, but they're part of the refugee population in the Strip. Families have been split, and many have been denied their right to simply be together.

Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Photo credit: David Rodrigo

Easter Eggs

As kids, we loved to color Easter eggs — it was always a family activity. My grandmother always loved natural coloring that came straight out of her kitchen. She boiled down onion skin and beets. But as kids, we loved the colorful tablets that dissolved in water and vinegar creating cool colors. And decorating them with all sorts of stickers and sleeves. These were the talk of Easter back then.

Although coloring was fun, we looked forward to all the laughs and smiles it brought us afterward when we played a game called “tae’sh” or “crack the eggs”. The dyed eggs will also serve as Easter’s morning breakfast. We all would gather and compete in cracking each other’s eggs.

The same dyed eggs are also offered to kids when families and friends come to visit during the Easter celebration which often lasts for a few days. We often challenged one another for an egg tae’sh throwdown. The person with the last unbroken egg is declared the winner. My father often cheated with fake or wooden eggs.

Easter Sunday (Eid Al Fiseh)

One of my favorite days of the year. It’s often springtime in Palestine, the weather is usually beautiful, the sun is in the center of the sky, red poppy flowers and dandelions spread covering the hills. It’s a time of wearing your best clothes to church. It also meant that my Aunt Aida would fill our bags with chocolate bunnies and Easter eggs. And my grandfather often gave us money to buy whatever we wanted and my Teta (grandmother) was busy whipping up a feast fit for a king. My cousins and family will all gather at my grandmother's house around the long extended rectangular table for a delicious lunch after church.

On my Teta’s menu was often stuffed lamb, rolled grape leaves, and cinnamon-scented rice. After lunch, we played outside for hours, cracked many eggs, and got on a chocolate bunny high.

Mai with her mother and father in Jerusalem after Palm Sunday

Palestinian food is an important part of Palestinian culture. It ties to our identity and culinary heritage and is rooted in history, purpose, and stories that are passed down from one generation to the next. Palestinian refugees brought the food of their homes, villages, and cities with them wherever they went, and cooking traditional food is a way of preserving the memories of what was once home.

For Palestine with Love

Thank you for coming with me down memory lane. Easter in Jerusalem is a real treat, the one holiday I miss most. As an ode to my grandmother, Easter, Ramadan, Eid, and Palestine; here is my family’s ma’amoul recipe.

Ma’moul Cookies Recipe:

Ka’ek and Ma’moul

Prep time: 2 hours

Inactive time: dough resting overnight

Cooking time: 10-15 min per cookie tray

Serving: will vary depending on how big or small you like your cookies or how big or small your molds are. I use a tablespoon (tbsp.) cookie measure and it will yield a few dozen.

Tools:

Pincher: malkat in Arabic, often found in Middle Eastern markets, often either stainless steel or brass clips.

Wooden cookie molds are also available at Middle Eastern stores just ask for ma’moul molds.

Optional: Small sieve and powdered sugar for dusting.

Dough:

1 pound fine semolina

2 sticks and a quarter of good quality unsalted butter melted

1/2 tsp mastic pearls crushed with 1/2 tsp of sugar

1/2 tsp ground mahlab

1 tsp active dry (instant) yeast

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup milk

Fillings:

Two (2) options each filling recipe is enough for one batch of dough.

Make less filling and experiment with all the flavors.

On Easter, families often make one or all two fillings.

Date filling:

1 pound date paste

1 tablespoon unsalted butter melted

Few grates of fresh nutmeg

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Walnut filling:

2 cups walnuts

2 tablespoons simple syrup

1 tablespoon unsweetened coconut

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Few grates of fresh nutmeg

Pulse your filling in a food processor until it resembles a thick coarse paste.

For more filling inspirations, see Mai’s website here.

To prep the dough:

Day 1

In a large bowl, mix together semolina, melted butter, mastic, and mahlab.

Use your hands to combine all the ingredients until it’s well mixed and resembles wet crumbs it will take about 10 minutes.

Cover with plastic wrap (so the dough doesn’t dry out) and let it sit on the counter overnight.

Day 2

Make your fillings

Add your water, milk, and instant yeast and knead the dough with your hands for a few more minutes until it holds its shape. You should be able to flatten the dough in your hand and it holds together and doesn’t crumble.

If it’s too dry add a tablespoon (tbsp.) a time of water until the dough comes together.

Using a one tablespoon (tbsp.) cookie scoop, measure and divide the dough into balls and set it aside on a tray.

Cover your dough with plastic wrap until ready to use.

Date filling:

Use the same one tablespoon (tbsp.) or an ice cream scooper to measure (don’t fill it because we want the date paste to be a bit smaller than the dough so it rolls easier).

Divide the date paste into balls and set aside on a tray and cover with cling wrap until you are ready to use so the dates don’t dry out.

Place the dough in the palm of your hands and flatten it slightly into a disc a bit larger than your date filling.

Place a date ball in the middle and wrap the dough around it until you don’t see the date anymore.

Roll between the palms of your hands creating a ball.

Flatten slightly and use the back of a wooden spoon or your small finger and create a small hole in the middle.

Using the malkat or the traditional clips pinch the edges of the dough all around.

Make decorative patterns however you wish.

Don’t pinch too deep otherwise, you will puncture the dough.

For the nut fillings:

I like to use the wooden cookie molds.

Dust the mold with flour and tap it down.

Add a dough ball in the center and flatten it slightly.

Add 1 teaspoon (tsp.) of your nut filling to the center of the dough.

Fold the dough over the center, flatten it slightly and tap your mold into the baking sheet.

The decorative lines of the mold will shape the cookie.

Bake the decorative side up.

Baking:

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Place the cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet (don’t butter there is plenty of butter in the dough).

Bake the cookies for 10 minutes or so until they are pale and hold their shape (we are not looking for golden cookies here).

Let them cool completely before you store them.

Traditionally once cooled the cookies are finished with a dusting of powdered sugar right before serving.

Recipe notes:

You can use both methods (the pinchers or the molds) with any of the fillings. The molds tend to be a bit faster.

Cookies will last in an airtight container for up to two weeks or frozen for up to 3 months.

Thank you again for coming with me down memory lane. Easter in Jerusalem is a real treat, the one holiday I miss most.

-Mai, @almondandfig | almondandfig.com

Easter in Palestine - My Earliest Memories