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:
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!