Hi, everyone. Rhoda here, with my mom this time.
- Hello. - And we're gonna show you
how to make the wonderful Easter cookies,
and we have them right here.
Those are the best Easter cookies in the whole wide world.
(Sergio) Easter cookies are notoriously famous
for being healthy and delicious.
- Mmm. - Mmm.
(Sergio) They are made without any sugar,
but they taste so sweet because they are filled with dates.
These cookies are made according to an ancient recipe
transferred from generation to generation
to celebrate the most important and oldest festival
of the Christian church:
The resurrection of Jesus Christ.
So, join Rhoda and her mom Ruth,
a local family born and raised in Nazareth,
as they show us how to make the traditional Easter cookies.
Yes! Easter cookies. Easter cookies.
Easter cookies. Easter cookies.
Yes! Easter cookies.
Easter cookies. Easter cookies.
Yes! Easter cookies!
In this household,
cooking begins with a cup of a traditional Arabic coffee
and a warm family welcome.
So, there are many ways to do these cookies.
I personally think that my mom's are the best
and she has the best ratio of everything.
So, there are spices that are used,
and you can increase or decrease according to your liking.
But, also, the dough itself has a few ways of making them.
For example, these are made with semolina flour,
which has this grainy texture.
And these are made with regular flour.
So, today, we're gonna do the regular flour recipe,
but you can also do them with semolina,
and both are just wonderful and very, very tasty.
And we're gonna show you all the steps
and the measurements and everything.
So, first, we're gonna do the filling,
and that's why we have our gloves on
because it gets really sticky.
And, basically, we're using the Medjool dates,
and they're so soft and meaty
and just wonderful.
But, what we're gonna do,
we're gonna take the pits out of them.
So, it's a tedious work, but that's what you do.
So, we open each one,
and we take the pits or the stems that are on them,
and we put them on the side
because you don't want that in your filling.
And then, after that,
and add the spices for it
(Ruth) Okay. So, while Rhoda's doing the dates,
I will do the dough.
So, we need 1 kilo of regular flour.
And we need...
three packages of margarine or butter.
I use two margarine, one butter.
And we take them out of the frigidaire before a night
so it will be easy to do with the dough.
Okay.
And now, what we do, we're gonna mix them real good.
We're gonna mix them with the flour real good
so all the flour and the butter
will be all together in one piece.
So, the ratio between the dates and the flour is one to one,
so my mom is making 1 kilo of flour,
a whole bag all-purpose flour,
and that needs 1 kilo of dates.
And here, in Israel,
you could just buy a box of 1 kilo.
And, so, that's what we're doing.
And, I think, in American measurements,
it translates into 2.2 pounds, I believe.
And, the flour, it's basically just a whole bag of it.
(Ruth) So, now, the flour and the butter are mixed together.
Now, we want to put the spices.
This is gum mastic.
I put it in the blender with a little sugar.
I buy it like this, and this is gum mastic.
I put...
a small spoon.
Only a spoon.
A small spoon.
And, then, I have mahlab.
It's also a kind of spice.
It has a very, very good smell.
1 tablespoon of mahlab.
on the flour.
And, also, just a little bit of yeast.
Just a little bit.
And, one cup of warm water.
That's it.
We mix it all together
till it becomes one piece of dough.
(Rhoda) So, the mahlab, a spice,
this one is ground, and it actually comes from a type of cherry tree.
It's the cherry stone, and inside are the seeds,
and it's ground.
So, you can find that online, actually,
because I found it.
And mastic, it comes from a gum mastic tree.
So, these are the two unique flavors to the dough.
All right. So, now, the dates
are all de-pitted and de-stemmed,
and to that we're gonna add 1 tablespoon of margarine,
or you could do 1 tablespoon of butter,
and it's just a little cube like that.
And, to that, we're gonna add cinnamon,
and how much?
1 small spoon.
1 teaspoon of cinnamon.
- Like this? - Mm-hmm.
Enough? Okay.
And, then, we're gonna add nutmeg,
and just a quarter of a teaspoon, like this, right?
- Yeah, a little less. - A little less?
- (Ruth) Yeah, that's enough. - (Rhoda) Okay.
Now, if you like it more nutmeggy,
you can add more,
but the nutmeg taste is strong,
so be advised about that.
And, now, we knead it, right?
- Mm-hmm. - Just with the hand, like this?
She gave me the harder dough to make.
That's very sneaky.
Oi.
I've never done that before.
- (Sergio) Is it difficult? - (Rhoda) It's very difficult.
I just eat the cookies.
That's the best part about them.
Now, usually, this event includes
a lot of women in the kitchen,
like relatives and friends,
and you kind of rotate to each other's houses
and help each one do them.
So, it's a nice event
around the Easter and in the neighborhood.
Like, during this time, you'll be smelling the cookies
from everybody's kitchen,
and then they do 10 kilos or more,
but they do them so fast because a lot of women participate.
(Ruth) So, the dough is ready,
and now I want to divide them into small pieces
according to the size of the cookie you want to do.
So, this is the size.
I want to do the whole thing
divided into pieces.
(Rhoda) If you feel like you have
parts of the dates that are dry
and they're not kneading together,
so these parts you could just take out
and put them on the side.
Do not put them as part of the dough
because they're gonna toughen.
And, then, when you bite on it, when the dough is ready...
it's not a good feeling.
So, I'm feeling some particles,
parts of the date skin that are a bit tough,
so we can simply take those out.
There are not many, but just a few.
It has to blend in.
Like, you cannot have big particles.
All right.
Okay. So, I have a little bit of oil,
just any oil that you have.
This is corn oil.
And, because it's a warm day today--
sometimes in this time of the year,
it's either cold either warm.
When it's cold, the dates don't stick as much,
and they're easier to handle.
But, when it's a warm day, like today,
it's harder to handle, and it's very, very sticky.
I have to change my gloves.
So, I take a little bit of oil, and I rub my gloves with it
so the dates don't stick
to my gloves or to my hands.
You could definitely do that bare hands.
And, so, I have this piece, for example, here.
I'm kneading it like this.
And, then...
I put it on this cutter
and just rolling it, like this.
So, roll it.
You want to have it a certain thickness
that is not too thick
so it can fit the cookie very well.
Is this good?
If it sticks, you can put it in the fridgidaire a little bit
and then continue to use it.
(Rhoda) Okay.
Okay. So, we take one piece of the dough
and we roll it on the table.
And, then, you press down, just like that.
And, then, you take part of the dates that you have rolled,
and then you see how much you need.
You see, you press it down as well,
and then you take that excess and put it away.
And, now, you want to...
bring the dough around it and pinch it together
and roll it again
so the dates stay inside.
And so, like this, we roll it.
Now, you can make these larger or smaller.
It's up to you.
And, if you feel there is excess dough on the side too,
you can take that out and mix it with the rest of the dough.
And, then, you just pinch it together at the end.
You stick it together.
And there you go.
Now, we have these small tools,
and we want to do this design.
This takes a lot of time.
And, like Rhoda said, that's why a lot of women
usually come and help,
but you can bake them without this design also.
Because it takes a lot of time,
we can just put them without this design in the oven.
(Rhoda) I'm much slower.
I finished mine.
I do one, my mom does three.
That's all right. That's how slow I am.
Okay. So, these, as far as the round ones,
and now we're gonna do the spear-shaped ones.
And, for those, what you could do,
you could add some walnuts.
You just need to take raw walnuts
and kind of cut them.
You don't want to ground them,
but you want to cut them into small pieces, like this,
so you could fill in with the date filling.
And, these, you don't want to roll too much.
You want to keep them a smaller shape,
so just like that.
And, then, you pinch them with those tweezers.
You could do a lot of designs,
like a leaf with a pinch in the middle,
like a spine in the middle,
and then on the side.
Or you could put it diagonal
or just straight lines all around.
It's really up to you.
And this one represents the spear
that went into Jesus' side while on the cross.
So, for this shape, in particular,
you don't roll the dates in this way.
You take a piece of the dates,
like a small one, like this,
and you want to prepare them in this way, just balls.
So, you take the dough
and you kind of expand it in your hands that it's not thick.
And, remember that this has to go over, over the dates,
so you want to make it wide enough.
And, when it's thick enough,
it tastes more dry.
And, then, you take the ball
and you put it in the middle, like this.
And, then, you just cover it.
I think it's too much dough,
so we're gonna take a bit out.
So, we don't want it too doughy.
So, you really have to feel for it
and take out always the excess.
You don't want too much dough in there.
And you don't want too much dates either
because then it's way too sweet.
And, then, you kind of roll it
so you give it that smooth look.
You roll it like this, see, so the date is inside.
And you want to shape it.
So, give it that...
shape of the tomb
or the stone that was rolled to cover the tomb.
It's a bit bready, shape-wise.
Okay. And there you go.
This one I did a cross shape on it with rays on the sides,
if you can see that.
And that's it.
So, almost 1 kilo
can do around 84 to 90 cookies
like these round, small ones.
She's laughing.
Joy is laughing. What did I say?
Okay. So, my dad decided to join us
to do a few designs because he's really good with that.
He has beautiful handwriting,
and he could do professional handwriting.
But, now, we'll see how he does the designs.
Welcome to our workshop, first of all.
Welcome.
You have to roll it and then press it down.
And, if you have extra dough on the sides,
you can pinch it out and not use it.
(laughter)
Oh, he's done!
(non-English speech)
He failed. He failed.
- Another one?
This is a great family activity.
You'll help us get done faster.
Everybody's helping.
So, you could do it with your family, your children,
your neighbors, your community.
This is really a group activity to do.
♪ (music) ♪
Okay. So, we have the batch
all decorated and done.
Now, we're gonna put it in the oven.
A preheated oven.
350 degrees for 15 minutes.
So, it's ready, and I'm gonna pop it in.
And we want to put it on the top.
This one.
You want to put it on not the very top...
not on the very top level,
but in between the middle and the top,
so you want it higher than the middle
so it doesn't burn from the bottom.
And then, now we wait, and we have to check on them.
And that's it.
♪ (music) ♪
Let me check them.
Okay, so here we go.
We have an assortment here of everything that we did,
and we're gonna talk a little bit about them.
And, by the way,
the number of cookies you're supposed to have,
for example, if you do this shape,
should be around 84, 85, like, to the number
when you do a kilo for kilo.
So, that's always the number that came out.
But, today, because we did something a bit different,
like those filled ones,
so we had 90 because those are much smaller.
There we go. We have the Fifi one here with the eyes.
We got the Star of David.
We have this star-- we have the cross, sorry.
This one's pretty. And we have SR.
And, this one Sergio did.
It's like the infinity, eternal life.
And this is the spear-shaped.
And those are just different types of decorations that you can use.
So, my sister did this style.
I did this style, which is simpler.
But, we've added, in the end,
one which is normally done,
even though, today, we just did one type of these cookies,
but this one is filled with the walnuts
with some cinnamon and sugar.
So, that's also another way to do them.
Just skip the dates, and do it like this.
They're yummy as well.
So, if you're very much into nuts,
and you love nuts with that flavor,
you can do that as well.
And, so, there you go.
We have all these assortments.
There you go. Easter cookies.
Hi, Fifi.
Hi.
Yes.