Week 1
Doing some research…
Before getting started, I wanted to learn a little about the cookies I will be making. Although I have eaten handfuls of them, I really do not know a whole lot about their origins. After quite a few google searches, here is what I learned:
-There are several ways to spell Makrout: Maqrout, Makroudh, Maqrut, Mqaret, Imqaret, Maqrood, or Makroud.
-Makrout in Arabic means “Diamond Shaped,” which makes sense as the cookies are diamond shaped.
-The cookie originate in Tunisia, but have made their way into the kitchens of both Algerians and Moroccans.
-There are very few ingredients in the Makrout: Semolina flour, oil, butter orange or rose water, dates, salt.
While trying to research the cookies, I was pretty shocked at how little I could find out about the cookies. Most of my research lead to blog posts from individuals who shared their recipes, but I could not find very much regarding the history of the cookies.
Technology tools to guide my process...
As for getting started in the kitchen, I have found a cool YouTube video that will help my process. In the video below, a woman shows steps by step what to do to make Makrots. I am quite the learn-through-YouTube-videos-junkie, since I am a highly visual learner; so I am excited to use this clip to guide my baking:
The only issues I have with the YouTube video is that women uses corn meal instead of semolina flour. I purchased semolina flour so I am going to try to use the semolina instead of the corn flour as my family traditionally used semolina. Hopefully this change doesn't affect the quality of the cookies.
Hunting down all the Ingredients ...
After reviewing the video a few times, I realized I forgot the orange blossom water. When I tried to go buy it; I stopped at four stores and couldn't find it! I was finally able to locate the orange blossom water at a small family owned grocery store in my area.
Below are all the ingredients I need to get started. Unfortunately half of the dates were eaten out of one of the packages by the time I located some orange blossom water, because I naively left them out in the open for my family to see; Moroccans do love their dates! I am surprised that the hardest part has been first-trying to get all the ingredients in one place, and second-keep them from getting eaten. There should still be enough dates left to start the bake off tomorrow, and Judging by how things have been going, I can already predict that the first batch of cookies will not last very long in my household! I hope they are good!
Hunting down all the Ingredients ...
After reviewing the video a few times, I realized I forgot the orange blossom water. When I tried to go buy it; I stopped at four stores and couldn't find it! I was finally able to locate the orange blossom water at a small family owned grocery store in my area.
Below are all the ingredients I need to get started. Unfortunately half of the dates were eaten out of one of the packages by the time I located some orange blossom water, because I naively left them out in the open for my family to see; Moroccans do love their dates! I am surprised that the hardest part has been first-trying to get all the ingredients in one place, and second-keep them from getting eaten. There should still be enough dates left to start the bake off tomorrow, and Judging by how things have been going, I can already predict that the first batch of cookies will not last very long in my household! I hope they are good!