Kahk stuffed with dates for the night ride
Small round shortbread cookies, kneaded with clarified butter and lightly sweetened, filled with perfumed date paste: they keep well and are nibbled on the road.
Small round shortbread cookies, kneaded with clarified butter and lightly sweetened, filled with perfumed date paste: they keep well and are nibbled on the road.
At night, I leave behind the palace and its flatterers, and climb the Muqattam on my gray donkey to speak alone with the stars. In my saddlebag, no feast: just a few of these dry cookies, kneaded with butter and stuffed with dates, which do not spoil and fill a man's stomach until dawn. Roll the thin dough around the fruit, bake it without browning, and you will have the watchman's road bread.
- •Wheat flour — three measures (shortbread dough)
- •Clarified butter (samn) — a good portion (binding and tenderness)
- •Pitted dates — a handful (filling)
- •Cinnamon and clove — a pinch (filling flavor)
- •Sesame or nigella seeds — a little (decoration)
- •Rose water — a few drops (flavor)
Kahk stuffed with dates for the night ride
Small round shortbread cookies, kneaded with clarified butter and lightly sweetened, filled with perfumed date paste: they keep well and are nibbled on the road.
Why this dish? Al-Hakim was in the habit of slipping away at night, riding his gray donkey to climb the Muqattam hills and meditate alone under the stars — it was during one of these nocturnal outings that he vanished forever in 1021. These small dry cookies, which keep for days and fit in a saddlebag, are the ideal provisions for a man who rides far from his table.
At night, I leave behind the palace and its flatterers, and climb the Muqattam on my gray donkey to speak alone with the stars. In my saddlebag, no feast: just a few of these dry cookies, kneaded with butter and stuffed with dates, which do not spoil and fill a man's stomach until dawn. Roll the thin dough around the fruit, bake it without browning, and you will have the watchman's road bread.
Ingredients (period version)
- Wheat flour — three measures (shortbread dough)
- Clarified butter (samn) — a good portion (binding and tenderness)
- Pitted dates — a handful (filling)
- Cinnamon and clove — a pinch (filling flavor)
- Sesame or nigella seeds — a little (decoration)
- Rose water — a few drops (flavor)
Ingredients
- Flour — 300 g (dough)
- Ghee (or melted butter) — 120 g (tenderness)
- Powdered sugar — 2 tbsp (light sweetness)
- Date paste — 150 g (filling)
- Cinnamon — 1/2 tsp (flavor)
- Rose water — 1 tsp (flavor)
- Sesame or nigella seeds — 1 tbsp (decoration (optional))
Method
- Rub the flour with warm ghee using your fingertips, add sugar, rose water, and just enough water to form a soft dough; let rest 30 minutes.
- Knead the date paste with cinnamon; form small balls.
- Take walnut-sized pieces of dough, flatten them, wrap a date ball in the center, and seal into a smooth ball.
- Slightly flatten, mark the top with a fork pattern, sprinkle with sesame or nigella seeds.
- Bake in a low oven (160°C) for 18 to 20 minutes: the kahk should remain pale, barely golden.
- Let cool completely before storing in an airtight container — they keep for one to two weeks.
How it was made : Kahk is attested in Egypt since Pharaonic and Ptolemaic times, but under the Ikhshidids and then the Fatimids it became a festive cake produced in industrial quantities in palace workshops, distributed to the people on great occasions. Its high-fat, low-moisture dough makes it an excellent travel provision that does not spoil quickly.
The contemporary twist : Dust them with powdered sugar "like the dust of the Muqattam hills" and present them in a small cloth pouch, as a tribute to the nocturnal caliph's saddlebag.
Sources : al-Maqrîzî, al-Khitat (kahk and pastry workshops of Fatimid Cairo) · Claudia Roden, A Book of Middle Eastern Food · al-Maqrîzî, Ittiâz al-hunafâ (reign and disappearance of Al-Hakim)
Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah · Charactorium