Kleicha

Kleicha (Syriac: ܟܠܝܟ̰ܐ killecha, Arabic: كليچة‎) is sometimes considered the national cookie of Iraq.

Kleicha come in several traditional shapes and fillings. The most popular are the ones filled with dates (kleichat tamur). There are also sweet discs (khfefiyyat), as well as half moons filled with nuts, sugar and/or desiccated coconut (kleichat joz). They are usually flavoured with cardamom and sometimes rose water, and glazed with egg wash,Assyrians bake Kilecheh on Eeda Gura, Easter, and Eeda Sura, Christmas, in which they are usually stuffed with dates and served with tea.[4]... i took it from wiki because its more understandable than if i write something 😅.. ok so lets get To the recipe i will start first with dough and how my mom make it its her recipe ...

Tools

Ingredients

220 ml whipped cream

500 g milk

300 g sugar

20 g Salt

2 Egg whites

600 g butter

2 Kg Flour

100 g Cardamom

14 g dry yeast

you can follow the video but I recommend starting first with butter then add the milk 🥛 rub the melted butter first then add the rest of the ingredients... i mixed the milk and cream together and warmed it up so it’s the good temperature for the dough and yeast. after you knead the dough let it rise in warm place , what i do i warm my oven and let it rise inside for about one hour then knead the dough and let it rest for another hour then check if it’s ready by seeing it double in size .

the filling ... the perfect date ! 😁

dates ...

900 g dates paste (dates without seeds)

100 g butter

20 g cardamom

just melt the butter add the dates and lower the heat then cover and let it sweat for about 15 minutes then mix and add the cardamom then mix again and let it sweat for another 15 minutes or until its so soft and you can work with it easily... now when it’s ready i shaped it in rounds while its still warm but u can wait till its cooled down .. then what i did is place the date in between the baking paper and open it using rolling pin until you have thin layer of date .. prepare it and set aside .

now walnut filling the half moon shaped

1 kg walnuts

30 g sugar

2 tbsp or more orange juice

crush the walnuts not too thin just like crunchy

add sugar ,juice .. mix well

and your done!

the flour filling .. mertokha

250 g butter

450 g wheat flour

1 cup water

2 tsp sugar

2 tsp salt

.. melt the butter then add the flour keep mixing till all the flour is added ,

now on low heat keep cooking it then add the water with the sugar and salt keep mixing ,

and cook for about 20 minutes with mixing do not leave , this is called mertokha 😍 ,

this is also done now .

if you can see in the video i prepared the dough but shaping it in rounds and let it rest for about 15 minutes then Start opining one by one useing the filling , first we start with walnuts then flour then dates at the end , now when you have 2 full trays warm up ur oven to 250c then reduce to 200 ,make ur egg wash ready i used two egg yolks and a tsp of vanilla and 1tbsp milk mixed together and egg washed the pastries and baked it till its golden from up and under 😊😍. It was a beautiful day with mom and ,and aunt ,we had so much fun .

please feel free to contact me if you are wondering about something or if i missing something >>>i, so excited to share this recipe it's my moms thats how she make it and thats how im making it from now on because like why not the taste is unbelievable and they look perfect too and the texture it's crunchy and crispy from the outside and soft from the inside ,, isn't that what are u looking for ? PERFECTION ....

song : The one and only ASHUR BET SERGES >>>>>