My mom lived in Dallas for a couple of years and being a very sociable person, she joined the newcomer’s club, made friends with all of the neighbors, and pretty soon had a fully booked social calendar with bridge parties, luncheons, museum visits and the like.

This is the type of communal cookie I would have liked to make and offer these ladies during their bridge and tea get-togethers. Each person can snap off a piece (as small or large as desired) and savor it with tea or coffee.

The crust is a pâte sucrée, a classic recipe from chef Roland Mesnier’s Dessert University who was the White House pastry chef, baking cakes and cookies to a long string of presidents and dignitaries.

According to chef Mesnier, he always made sure there was a plate of petits fours available at the White House; none of that whimsical stuff though!

The  crust is crunchy and buttery and combined with a couple coats of apricot jelly or amardeen and the extra crunch of the almonds scales, it is hard to resist.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 2 sticks of unsalted butter (8 ounces)
• Rind of a lemon or orange
• 1/2 tablespoon of vanilla
• Dash of salt
• 1 large egg
• 2 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1 cup of amardeen syrup or apricot jam or preserves
• 1/2 cup of almonds slices
• 1/2 teaspoon of agar-agar if using amardeen syrup (optional)
• dragées, to shape the eyes (optional)

METHOD:

1. Place the softened butter and sugar in the bowl of a mixer; mix well until the mixture is light-colored, about 5 minutes. Add the vanilla, lemon zest and salt. Combine. Add the egg and mix; add the flour and mix until it disappears. Gather the dough into a ball, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for one hour or longer.
2. Tear off half of  the dough, leaving the rest refrigerated; taking one potato-size lump of dough, shape it into a narrow tube and set it on a cookie sheet lined with baking paper; continue with more until a snake shape is formed, making the hear fatter and the tail narrower. Using a knife, form a groove all along the snake. Insert almond slices and a couple of eyes with dragées if desired.
3. Bake the snake in a 350Foven for 15 to 20 minutes until golden with brown accents; the dough should be crisp when it cools. Cool the cookie.
4. Brush apricot preserve, jam or amardeen all over the dorsal part, in two batches; (wait for the first coat to dry). Serve.

NOTE: This dough is sufficient for 2 large snakes or a batch of about 75 cookies. It will freeze well, tightly wrapped, for two months. Shape the dough into a log, refrigerate or freeze and cut in 1/4 inch slices.

To make jam out of amardeen syrup, pour the syrup into a saucepan (you should have two cups); heat until simmering and add 1/2 teaspoon of agar-agar; stir continuously for 30 seconds to one minute. Cool. If you are using one cup, reduce the agar-agar to 1/4 teaspoon.

For a different look:

Simply form ring shapes and insert almonds all around; when bakes into a golden-brown hue, let them cool a bit and apply the apricot jam with a brush.

Amardeen is a beloved snack for every kid raised in the Near-East; Amardeen is a sheet of apricot paste. The apricots are grown in the area of the Ghouta, near Damascus in Syria.  Amardeen is tangy, sweet and has an intense apricot flavor.

This is a basic sponge cake with an apricot filling made out of a sheet of amardeen.

Middle-Eastern stores commonly sell the amardeen in sheet form, but also as a syrup. Both can be used here. The cream should be prepared the day before if using amardeen (instead of the syrup) as it needs time to dissolve in water.

INGREDIENTS:

FOR THE SPONGE CAKE

http://www.joyofbaking.com/AmericanSpongeCake.html#ixzz1RYICrmSQ

• 6 Large eggs, separated
• 1 cup sugar, divided (200 g.)
• 1 Tablespoon orange blossom water (or a mixture of orange and rose water)
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• Rind of one orange or lemon
• 1 cup of sifted cake flour (100 g)
• 3/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar
• Powdered sugar, as needed
• Amardeen cream

METHOD:

1. In a small bowl, mix the sifted cake flour with 1/4 cup of sugar. In a large mixing bowl, place the egg whites and next to the mixing bowl, place 1/4 cup of sugar and the cream of tartar. Start beating the whites, add the cream of tartar when frothy and add the sugar gradually to the whites; don’t over-beat, stop the machine once the whites form a stiff but still shiny meringue. Set aside or transfer to another bowl and start beating the yolks with 1/2 cup of the sugar.
2. Beat the yolks and sugar till thick and light in color; add the flavorings and citrus rind. sift the flour mixture over the yolks and gently fold it in with a spatula. Fold the whites into the batter gently so as not to deflate it and when the batter is ready, transfer into a cake pan lined with parchment paper (or greased and floured). I used a 9 inch pan.
3. Bake in a preheated 350F oven for about 35 minutes; test the cake with a toothpick and when golden-browned and puffy remove from the oven and let it cool for a few minutes then remove from the cake pan and cool it completely.
4. Using a long serrated knife, cut the layer in two, and spread the amardeen cream on the bottom layer. Assemble the two layers and sprinkle powdered sugar on the cake. Serve.

To make the amardeen cream:

• 1/2 package of amardeen cream (250 g.)
• 1/2 cup of sugar (or more, to taste)
• 1/3 cup of cornstarch
• 1 Tablespoon of lemon

METHOD:

1. Cut the amardeen in small pieces and soak in two cups of water overnight (cover and keep in the fridge); the next day, transfer to a saucepan and heat gently until the amardeen is completely dissolved. Add the sugar and make sure it is dissolved in the mixture, then add the lemon juice.
2. Dilute the cornstarch in a bit of water and when the amardeen cream is steaming, stir the cornstarch mixture in and stir for a couple of minutes until the mixture thickens. Strain (to make sure no lumps remain) and cool; it will thicken more.
3. Spread the apricot cream over the bottom layer of the cake.

NOTE: You can make the cream using the syrup; dilute the syrup with a cup of water (same volume water and syrup), add sugar and dissolve the sugar over low heat; add the cornstarch mixture and when thick strain through a sieve and cool.

Just what is amardeen?

For a lot of us who grew up in the Near East, it was an after-school treat; an extra-tangy, intensely flavored apricot leather that we would suck on for as long as possible (to make the pleasure last).

It is a large sheet of apricot paste made from apricots that are cultivated in the region near Damascus in Syria.

Have you ever bought fragrant apricots at a supermarket that had a heady apricoty perfume?

I haven’t. The only apricots that I have experienced with a perfume so strong you could smell it several feet away, were bought in Lebanon during the short season when they are at their best. It is an experience one should go through at least once.

To get back to this amardeen, what is it used for?

• Cut off a piece and suck it as a sweet and tangy snack, full of vitamins and fiber.
• Chop it and soak it in water, whirl in the blender and make a juice with it. Click here for the recipe.
• Make a drink with it, try margaritas, click here for the recipe.
• Make a pudding with it, click here for the recipe.
• Make an apricot sorbet, click here for the recipe.
• Make an amardeen bar with it, click here for the recipe.

The list could go on and on.

If you have grown up in the Middle East, then amardeen was most likely in your pantry; an apricot paste sold in large one-pound sheets, it has an intense, tangy and sweet apricot flavor. The apricots are from a region in Syria near Damascus.

Kids in the Middle-East eat it as a snack, a little piece every day.

Amardeen can be found either  in a one-pound  sheet or in a bottle and is sold in Middle-Eastern groceries; if unable to find, then apricot nectar will be a good substitute.

Amardeen is made into puddings or drinks. I wanted to make it into bars, because I love lemon bars and amardeen bars are just as tangy but with the added fragrance of apricots.

First Step: Make the amardeen curd

• 1 1/2 cup of amardeen syrup + 1/2 cup of water
• 4 eggs
• 4 ounces of unsalted butter (100 g)
• 1/2 cup  of cornstarch
• 3 Tablespoons of sugar (or more, to taste)

METHOD:

• Melt the stick of butter; add the eggs, the sugar and the amardeen syrup (reserve the water for later)
• Stir the mixture continuously; it will steam and get a bit thicker.
• Add the cornstarch diluted in the water and stir continuously.
• Strain the mixture through a sieve into a bowl. Cool and refrigerate, covered with a sheet of plastic wrap.

Second Step: Make the cookie base

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 1/2 cups of flour
• 1/2 cup of powdered sugar
• 4 ounces of cream cheese
• 1/2 cup butter, melted (100 g)
• 1/4 cup of vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon of mahlab
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder

METHOD:

1. Place the flour, powdered sugar, mahlab, and baking powder in the bowl of a food processor.
2. Mix the dry ingredients for 30 seconds. Add through the feed tube all the other ingredients: Melted butter, oil, egg, cream cheese.
3. Process for one minute or so, until the mixture becomes lumpy; remove from the bowl, gather into a ball and wrap in plastic or foil and refrigerate for 30 minutes or longer.
4. Roll out between 2 sheets of baking paper to a thickness of 3 mm or 1/4 inch. Place in a pan lined with parchment or baking paper. Bake for 30 minutes at 375F; if it browns too fast, cover and bake at 325F for a few more minutes until the pastry is baked thoroughly and crisp.
5. Cool. Spread the amardeen curd evenly on the pie. Top with ground pistachios if desired. Keep refrigerated.

NOTE: Substitute apricot nectar, with a few teaspoons of fresh lemon juice (to taste). Boil the nectar down a few minutes in the microwave to concentrate its taste (it will reduce its volume, so plan accordingly).

This is a traditional drink during Ramadan; by the way, Ramadan Kareem to all!

Amardeen is the name given to a large sheet of apricot paste; the apricots and the sheets are from Syria; amardeen has a tangy, sweet and intense apricot flavor. It is diluted in water, made into a drink or a pudding or just eaten as is in chunks.

For a quart-sized pitcher:

Dilute 500 g (about 1 package or 1 pound) of amardeen in a pint of water overnight. The next day, pour one cup of water and 1/2 cup of sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the water. Cool and set aside. Place 2 ounces of nuts (pistachios, pine nuts) in a bowl filled with water for at least one hour.

In a blender, pour the amardeen and water mixture and the syrup and process until smooth; taste for desired sweetness. Serve the drink in cups and garnish with a few pine nuts and peeled pistachios or almonds or walnuts, if desired.

NOTE: One can add a teaspoon of rose water to this drink if desired.

For a pudding recipe, click here

Love apricots! However, I have not had good luck with the  fresh  apricots sold in supermarkets. They  are so often bland and pasty that I stopped buying them.  I remember my excitement the first time I found the amardeen of my childhood in a middle-eastern store…  we used to tear off pieces and  lick them slowly.. This was an after-school snack, our Levantine fruit roll-up!  Manufactured in Syria with apricots that come from the Ghouta  region near Damascus, this apricot leather is to me the best! Very intense apricot flavor, with the tanginess that makes it so irresistible.

My mom  would  prepare a pudding from the amardeen that she would decorate in a very artsy way using pine nuts, almonds and pistachios. Easy to make. Delicious. With extra  benefits: apricot is a remedy for anemia, as it is iron-rich. It is a gentle laxative, rich in Vitamin A and calcium and good for the eye and heart.

None of the cookbooks I had even mentioned this recipe, until I found it in The Arab Table, by May S. Bsisu. She calls it mohalabia kamar el deen, which is fitting since, just like the traditional mohalabia it is thickened with cornstarch and flavored with sugar and rose and orange blossom waters. Mrs. Bsisu also suggests combining both the traditional milk-based mohalabia and this amardeen pudding, one layer on top of the other. I love the idea, especially since in Lebanon they make an orange pudding and pour it on top. I prefer the tangy taste of apricots on top of milk.

INGREDIENTS: This quantity will serve 6 to 8 people or more if you use smaller goblets.

1 Large package of Amardeen (about 500g or 1 lb)

4 cups of water

1/2 cup of sugar or several tablespoons of syrup (atr) (or more, to taste)

1/2 cup of cornstarch

1 Tablespoon of orange blossom water, 1 Tablespoon of rose water (or more, to taste)

To garnish:

1/2 cup of almonds, pine nuts, pistachios, or any other nut that you like to use

METHOD:

• The night before: Cut the amardeen in large pieces and cover them with water. Leave it overnight and even a day longer in the fridge.
• The next day, puree this mixture in a blender till it is smooth. If you wish, strain it by running it through a sieve into the pot, but I personally don’t find this step necessary. However, it is a good idea to keep track of how many cups you end up with, to calculate how much thickening agent you are going to need. You should have about 6  cups.
• In a large pot, pour the apricot puree, add the sugar  and stir to dissolve.
• Dissolve the cornstarch in  some water and add to the apricot mixture once it starts steaming. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
• Keep stirring for about 3 minutes and then pour the mixture, this time through a sieve, into a container with a spout.
• Divide the pudding into small goblets or one large platter.

Decorate the surface of the pudding after it has set with a medley of nuts. Sahteyn!

NOTE:

If you feel like combining milk and apricot flavors, prepare the muhallabia first. Use the same quantities as for the apricot.

4 cups of whole milk (or lowfat)

1/2 cup of sugar

1/2 cup of  cornstarch

1 Tablespoon of orange blossom water and rose water combined

METHOD:

1. Place 3 cups of  milk and the sugar in a saucepan. Mix the one cup of remaining milk with the cornstarch in a separate little bowl.
2. Heat the milk and sugar till it steams. Now add the cornstarch and stir till it bubbles and thicken, a couple of minutes, stirring constantly. Add the blossom and rose water and stir for a few seconds. Pour through a strainer into the serving bowl or bowls.
3. Let it cool at room temperature and then refrigerate.

NOTE: It is always possible to thicken more if the pudding is not getting as thick as you like by adding, one tablespoon at a time of cornstarch diluted in a bit of water. Wait for the mixture to thicken then add the cornstarch and stir constantly until thick. Pour through a strainer into the goblet. It should thicken within 3 minutes of constant stirring.