Falling for Maamoul
My husband is a phenomenal home cook who can create a master meal from seemingly random ingredients. He has that ability to see things and just know how much of what he should add. You know the type. If you’re like me, this ability is akin to learning a new language. I have been in the kitchen for a solid 12 years now, and I am just owning that I can make recipes my own.
We also have very different kitchen behaviors; I’m slow and methodical. He works incredibly fast and is constantly moving. If I’m honest, cooking with him gives me more than a little anxiety because I just don’t go that fast.
Well, my thoughts fly through my mind like wildfire and I become highly distractable, so with someone moving at the speed of light, I kind of shut down and walk away. He also cleans as he goes. You know the type. They’re super proud when they’ve made a meal and cleaned the kitchen at the same time.
I am very much NOT that type of person, so working together gets … overwhelming for both of us. Unless I have a break in what I’m cooking, I will get far too distracted and ruin the meal if I wash while I cook. He really doesn’t get this, but it is so.
Our kitchen relationship is likely one of the reasons I avoided the kitchen almost entirely for first 10ish years together. Obviously, other factors contributed as well (namely, his food is delicious), but even when I entered the kitchen after leaving full-time work, we cooked at separate times.
Finding Common Ground
Having moved back to the US, we both really miss foods that were readily available to us throughout the Middle East, particularly: breads/stuffed breads, yogurt, and Arabic sweets. In the past 6 months, my husband has been has cultivated plain yogurt and mastered pita bread. Personally, though I miss those things, I’m happy to make do with replacements as making those things is not where my energy needs to go.
Baked goods are a different story entirely. This is where I own the kitchen space and he leaves me to it because I thrive in this space; my baking time is sacred and I don’t respond well to people unnecessarily rushing me.
This year, however, we wanted to make some grounding traditions, rooting our girls to their new space. What better way to do this than making holiday cookies?! Though I bake and can make a number of cookies, taking on the traditional maamoul has given me pause for a few years. I bought the molds THREE years ago, and they’ve sat in the cupboard since that time, filling me with baking shame and dread each time I open said cupboard.
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Maamoul is the chocolate chip cookie of the Arab world, with multiple variations and many opinions on what makes the best cookie. They’re a filled, molded cookie usually stuffed with dates or walnuts, and they’re everywhere, particularly during holidays, such as Eid and Easter.
My first introduction to maamoul was over 20 years ago—Halwani Bros. Their packaging will bring nostalgia for anyone who knows it. Personally, this nostalgia brings forth early years of marriage and many firsts in our cross-cultural food. After living in the Middle East for 15 years, I’ve had this delicious treat in many homes and from many hands and know the Halwani Bros. are most definitely not the pinnacle of maamoul. Even so, my heart lights up when I see the tan and brown packaging.
Bridging through Food
This first year “home” was full of so much newness, and though I didn’t have nearly as much new as my children (school, culture, routines, foods, etc.), it has been a year of massive transition. So often in transition, particularly in moving, offering ourselves something from where we’ve left can be a sort of bridge between the old and the new, the spaces we left and the spaces we’re finding.
After many years of saying I would try it, and having multiple recipes, I finally pulled out the molds, tried an easy recipe for the dough, but knew that I wanted a few additions, and wanted more flavor in the filling, so went with a different recipe. The only thing I added to the dough was mastic and mahlab as I know these are commonly used in Palestine.
Just like being somewhere new, everything can and will be adjusted to suit us over time. I’ll share the two videos below to show multiple variations in just two videos!
For the filling, I went with this deliciousness:
What I didn’t expect was that my husband would jump on the maamoul making bandwagon with me! It was a testament to how far we’ve come in our kitchen adventures together (haha) that he joined me. He was full of all the advice on what we should do based on memories, but learned alongside me the little tips and tricks (e.g., using a bit of water in a wood mold is helpful with sticking, but it very much does the opposite in a plastic mold).
Connecting with my husband in a new way over and old treat was really quite a wonderful experience, bringing us together as a family in unexpected ways. I very much look forward to the coming years in how we grow our maamoul making while adjusting to ever shifting life circumstances. And, if I say so myself, our first attempt wasn’t too bad!
Your Story
I’d love to hear about your food experiences during transitional times, especially with your spouse.
- What foods do you connect with your family over?
- Do you have specific cookies you only make during certain holidays?
- Do you cook with your spouse?
- How could you bring foods to help during times of transition?
