This recipe of holiday cookies was sent to us by Mrs.
Lina Saade from Kherbet Qanafar, a beautiful village in the West Bekaa of Lebanon. Lina who owns a table d’hote on
darb el karam – food trail, is renowned for her cookies baked on wood fire. These cookies which she sells in local shops and serves to her guests all year-round, have been traditionally prepared on special occasions especially on Easter and Palm Sunday or “Chaanineh”.
Total servings: 6 kilos of Kaak
Preparation time: 4-5 hours
Ingredients
3 kg of flour
1.5 kg of sugar
3 cups of vegetable oil
8 cups of fresh cow milk
3 tsp of yeast
3 tsp of baking powder
2 tsp of rose water
1 tsp of “Mahleb”
1 tsp of vanilla powder
1 tsp of grated nutmeg
Sesame for decoration
Preparation steps:
- In a cooking pot, heat the fresh milk until boiling point, then add sugar and stir well
- When the sugar is well dissolved, add the vegetable oil
- In a big bowl, mix the flour, yeast, baking powder, Mahleb, vanilla powder and nutmeg
- When the milk cools down gradually add it to the bowl while mixing
- Knead well until the dough becomes smooth
- Sprinkle the rose water on the dough and leave it to rest for 3 hours
- These cookies are usually prepared by shaping the dough into rounded shapes (picture) but yu can also use molds to give them different shapes
- Sprinkle sesame on top of the cookies and bake them in a wood oven for about 4 minutes
- A gas oven can also be used, but the wood oven gives the cookies their special flavor
