Kleacha (Eid Celebration Date Filled Pastry)

As the Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting comes to an end the Eid celebrations begin.

Usually the last week of the month is filled with holiday baking, but many people begin serious Eid preps around the last ten days, organizing their houses, decorating, buying gifts and lots of baking and menu planning!

Kleacha is a traditional cookie, it has a date filling (and some filled with nuts and such) and it's very popular in Iraq, Kurdistan and other parts of the Arab world. Ma'moul or Ka'k is a similar but more flakey pastry that also has a filling and then formed in an intricate mould and dusted with powder sugar, recipes vary by country and region.

What I remember about Kleacha is that it's a Eid staple. Around Eid time people bake big batches of them and store them away. Most of the time there is too much to bake for a conventional home oven so us kids would borrow some trays and take them to the bread baker down the street or in the local neighbourhood market and ask him to bake them for us in his big oven.
Mother would give us a small dish of beaten egg and we'd egg wash the cookies at the baker's before he bakes large batches at a time.

My sister and I would hang out there supervising until they were done.

On Eid when guests pop in for greetings and short visits to exchange gifts you serve them some kleacha along with tea or coffee, candies and roasted nuts.

The cookies also keep well and can be frozen and defrosted when needed.

Everyone has their own recipe, but this is my mother's recipe, some people like the hint of spices and some omit it as well as the sesame seeds in the dough.

It's not a complex recipe at all, and it's just a matter of prepping the fillings and dough beforehand.

Date Cookies (kleacha)


Dough ingredients:

6 cups flour

1 tsp salt

Optional ingredients:

1/3 cup sesame seeds (roasted/toasted)
1 tsp cinnamon ground

1/2 tsp all spice

Mix the above in a big bowl. Add in and mix until it is resembling crumbs:

1 1/4 cups oil (or instead 3/4 cup melted butter and 1/2 cup oil)

In a small bowl proof the yeast:

1 tsp yeast
1 tsp sugar
1/2 cup warm water

When foamy in 5 mins or so mix a little warm milk (below ingredient) into it and dump the yeasty mixture it into the dough.

Begin adding the warm milk below little by little until it looks like a good dough.

1 1/2 - 2 cups warm milk

Allow the dough to rise for two hours.

Filling ingredients:

Date paste or pitted whole dates from the bulk store (a large bag)

Walnuts, chopped up, mixed with some sugar to sweeten

Shredded coconut, mixed with sugar to sweeten

Prepare date filling by putting 4 cups pitted dates into a pot add 1/8 cup oil, 1 cup water and 1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional) then bring to a boil until it turns into a soft sticky paste. Set aside to cool flattened out on a plate.

Roll dough into a thin layer (about 1/8 inch) into a big square.

Spread the date mixture all over.

Roll it up like a cinnamon roll, but tightly and slice 1 inch pieces.

Lay them on the tray, the same way they were sliced (unlike cinnamon rolls which are laying on their sides).

Wipe the tops with beated egg then bake until browned on preheated 375 Oven until dough is cooked and they are golden brown.