Sunday, April 4, 2010

Edible Books and Easter

Happy Easter All, I hope the bunny brings lots of eggs.

Last Thursday First of April was the Eleventh Edible Books High Tea. I participated in the first and second edible book teas with Papermakers of Victoria but this is the first since 2001. I saw a notice about it Thursday morning and since I was making my annual batch of Middle Eastern Easter cakes (Mamoul) I decided to have a go at making a mamoul book.





I first learned to make mamoul about 20 years ago at a middle Eastern cooking class given by Gamil Abou-Lehaf for CAE. Over the years I have adapted to recipe and have found this to suit me best.

1 kg semolina
1 cup sugar (250 ml)
250g butter (or dairy free spread for vegans) - melted
1.5 cups boiling water (375 ml)
500 g dates
water

Mix semolina with sugar then pour on the melted butter and boiling water, kneed well until the mixture is smooth and all the semolina has been incorporated into the mix. Cover and leave overnight.

Cover the dates with water and cook until soft then mash.
in the morning take walnut sized pies and roll into balls (a bigger piece was required for the 'book') flatten out and put a teaspoon of date in the middle and close the semolina around the date, place on a baking tray. The balls can be placed quite close together they do not expand very much in cooking. Cook for about 20 minutes in a moderate oven until the mamoul just change colour. They can have icing sugar sprinkled on but I don't find that necessary, it makes it look better but messier to eat.


See other peoples edible books here http://www.flickr.com/groups/best-edibles-2010/pool/ and  here
books2eat.com.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

gail, i loved your book - (especially with the bonus of being gluten-free! my daughter is gluten-intolerant, so i'm always on the lookout for new recipes)
an edible book certainly puts a different twist on making paper products ;-)
Tuesday

Papergail said...

Hi Tuesday,
Semolina is made from wheat so is not gluten free, I wonder if the recipe would work with polenta? It might be worth trying, they would end up a nice colour.