Iraqi Date Rolls

Hand made, scented with freshly ground cardamom, topped with a cool little black seeds (nigella) and centered with naturally sweet dates, klegeh, are my new favorite treat. See below for the recipe, and the unlikely story of how I came to discover these wonderful little nuggets.

The Story

Blind Cooking Date With Iraqi

Set Up in Bulgur Isle

By Lindsay Sterling

At Sindbad, the Iraqi Market on Forest Avenue near Woodford Street, I was looking for fine bulgur. It’s a pre-cooked, ground form of wheat used for making tabbouleh. I asked the cashier with black hair and big square black glasses: “Do you have bulgur?” He looked at me quizzically. He took in my brown hair, light skin, American accent and absence of headscarf. He asked around to fellow customers in Arabic what they thought I might mean. “Ah!” He then said, motioning for me to follow. He opened up the chest freezer and pointed out a package of frozen burgers.

            “Not burgers,” I laughed, “Bulgur!” I tried to pronounce it the way my Lebanese cooking teacher had. “Bergool?” “Ah!” he said again, smiling and leading me to another part of the store. In the bulgur isle I got my stash of #1 fine ground bulgur. As we were both smiling at our mutual success, I asked the cashier if he happened to know a Syrian cook who could teach me how to cook a dish. He said he didn’t, but his Iraqi wife would be happy to cook with me. They’d come here a year and four months ago because Iraq had become too dangerous to raise a family. These days, she was home all day without a car and wanted to practice her English, so she would probably enjoy my company in their kitchen.

When I met his wife at their home, she was wearing a nightgown and pink slippers. She wore dangling gold earrings and a necklace carrying a cursive word in gold: “Asraa,” [pronounced EEssra], her name. The couple introduced me to their young boys and baby girl, and then Asraa and I cooked an Iraqi pastry together, called klejeh.

            First, she proofed active dry yeast with a little warm water and sugar. In a large bowl she mixed flour, oil, sugar, the yeast, milk, vanilla, and ground green cardamom. She kneaded this into dough with her hands until the dough pulled cleanly away from the side of the bowl. Then she covered the bowl with plastic wrap and a towel. Next she made the filling. She took the pits out of dates with her fingers and kneaded the dark date meat with a little butter and white sesame seeds until the date mass was evenly speckled. She rolled date mixture into cylinders about the thickness of a pencil just as you would make snakes out of Playdough.

She rolled out the pastry dough into a big circle, about 1/8^th inch think. She rolled the top of the dough over one of the date pieces and then rolled over another. Then she cut off the rolled, date-stuffed strip. She made diagonal slits on it for decoration and brushed on egg wash to so the sprinkled nigella seeds would stick on. They looked like black sesame seeds but tasted like mild cumin. They’re from a flower in the same family as the buttercup, and have been cultivated for at least 4000 years. Funny, I should be learning about them just now. She cut the roll into bite-sized pieces and baked the klejeh until golden. They tasted, according to my daughter who tried the batch Asraa sent home with me, “Peppery but sweet.” I liken them to a homemade, non-industrial Fig Newtons, only prettier, peppier, and made with dates. They’re great with coffee or tea. When they were done, she asked when I would come to cook again. The cashier chimed in, “Anytime. Anytime.” I’m looking forward to it already.

Copyright Lindsay Sterling 2013

The Recipe - Iraqi Date Rolls

Iraqi Date Rolls
Klejeh

As Asraa Ghazal from Alkut, Iraq, taught Lindsay Sterling in Portland, ME, September 2013

Makes 24
Active time: 45 min
Total time: 3 hours

1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 cup luke warm water
2 cups flour
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup oil
1/4 tsp vanilla sugar (or use 1/4 tsp vanilla mixed into the oil)
1/2 tsp freshly ground green cardamom
25 dates

1 Tbsp butter

1 Tbsp white sesame seeds
1 egg
1 Tbsp nigella seeds

Mix active dry yeast, 1/2 tsp sugar and luke warm water together in a small dish.

Into a large mixing bowl, add flour, 2/3 cup sugar, vanilla sugar, and oil. Rub contents of bowl between your hands in a circular motion so the texture turns to rough corn meal with some pea-sized pieces. Add milk and yeast and mix with your hands until the contents become dough that pulls cleanly off the sides of the bowl. Add more flour if dough still sticks. Knead in ground cardamom, form dough into a ball, and leave in bowl covered with plastic wrap and a towel over that. Let rise in a warm location for 1-2 hours. (You can stick dough in fridge if need to finish later. You can also freeze the dough).

Preheat oven to 350. Pull dates open with your fingers and remove pits. Knead date meat with butter and sesame seeds until it makes a smooth mass. Really work it. Break date mass into 6 pieces and roll them as you would Playdough into cylinders, about 1/4 inch in diameter and 12 inches long if possible.

Once dough has risen, drizzle oil on clean counter and roll out dough into a large cricle about 1/8th inch thick. At the top of the circle, roll a date piece so it is surrounded in dough. Nestle another date piece next to the roll and roll again. Cut the date roll off from the rest of the dough and repeat this process until you have combined all the dough and date cylinders into rolls. Trim the ends of the rolls on a diagonal, and press rolls down to slightly flatten.

Score the top of the rolls diagonally about every 1/2 inch for decoration. Scramble egg in a small dish and brush egg onto the top of all the rolls. Sprinkle nigella seeds on the egg wash. Cut across rolls on the diagonal, parallel to your end cuts, about every inch to make bite-sized pieces. Place pieces on baking sheet and bake until tops are golden, about 20 minutes.

Asraa keeps a big batch in the freezer to have them on hand when guests come over. Reheat in oven and serve with tea or coffee.

Copyright Lindsay Sterling 2013

See How To Do It - Iraqi Date Rolls