Original Recipe

(al-Baghdadi p. 214/14)
Take fine dry bread, or biscuit, and grind up well. Take a ratl of this, and three quarters of a ratl of fresh or preserved dates with the stones removed, together with three uqiya of ground almonds and pistachios. Knead all together very well with the hands. Refine two uqiya of sesame-oil, and pour over, working with the hand until it is mixed in. Make into cabobs, and dust with fine-ground sugar. If desired, instead of sesame-oil use butter. This is excellent for travellers.

Ingredients:

• 2 c bread crumbs
• 2 c pitted dates — about 1 lb.
• 1/3 c almonds — ground
• 1/3 c pistachio nuts — ground
• 10 Tbsp. melted butter — or sesame oil
• sugar

Method:

• Grind nuts in food processor.
• Combine with bread crumbs.
• Chop dates in food processor; I found that they chop to a fine consistency when a half cup of the bread crumb-nut mixture was added to the bowl of the food processor with the dates.
• Mix it all together well.
• Melt the butter and add to the bread crumb-nut-date mixture.
• Form the mixture into bite-sized balls or ovals and roll in sugar.

Notes:

• We used commercial bread crumbs which I suspect are somewhat drier than the ones that you might make yourself.
• The type of breadcrumbs that you use will determine how much butter you’ll need.
• Home made breadcrumbs will require less butter than this recipe calls for.
• We find that it holds together better if you let it set for an hour or more.