Enjoy A Little Hope This Easter
Easter just wouldn’t be Easter without chocolate eggs. But it wasn’t always this way. Chocolate confectionery, after all, is less than 200 years old, whereas Easter has been around for at least 2000 years. Eggs are a different story, though. They have much to do with the arrival of Spring and are associated with new life, and so it’s not much of a stretch to see their connection with Easter as symbolic of the resurrection of Christ.
Eggs also give us a clue as to why the lead up to Easter Sunday is a frenzied time for baking traditional breads, biscuits and pastries. You see, back in the days of old, many Christians observed Lent, a fasting ritual that lasted 40 days during which it was forbidden to eat meat, eggs and dairy. Not to eat meat was pretty easy, you simply didn’t slaughter livestock or go a-hunting. But you couldn’t tell your chickens to stop laying eggs or your cows to stop producing milk. So, not to let the eggs and milk go to waste people came up with baking foods that wouldn’t go off before Easter Sunday, which is when the Lenten fast ended and the feasting started. Chocolate eggs have become ubiquitous, but you’d actually be surprised at how much baking of sweet breads and biscuits goes on at Easter.
In Australia, we’re all familiar with hot cross buns, and they’re popular in England too, which is where they hailed from and were originally called Alban buns. As legend has it, Brother Thomas Rocliffe, a 12th Century Anglican monk from St. Albans Abbey in Herfordshire, baked a great quantity, added the cross on top as an emblem of Good Friday, and distributed them to the poor.
In Greece they bake a biscuit called Koulourakia, which does not really say much because the word translates into English as shortbreads or cookies. But what gives their significance at Easter is their shape. They are often wreath-like, twisted or braided, which is said to represent the crown of thorns worn by Christ at his crucifixion.
Colomba di Pasqua originated in Italy and though its ingredients are very similar to pannetone or pandoro, which Italians have at Christmas, there’s one big difference. Where the pannetone is dome-shaped and the pandoro is crown-shaped, the colomba is dove-shaped. Colomba is the Italian word for dove, which is an international symbol of peace, but also represents the Holy Spirit, the communion of God and humankind when Christ was sacrificed on the cross.
Finally, we can’t pass by the Lebanese sweet Ma’amoul. Even though it’s a popular sweet at Easter, its pistachio or walnut filling and orange-blossom flavour makes it a favourite among the Lebanese all year round. And though its ring-shape is said to symbolise the crown of Christ, you really wouldn’t pick that up at first glance. Or on second glance for that matter! What really gives this pastry its Easter significance is the name – ma’amoul means hope. What a great thing to eat and enjoy at Easter! So, to give you hope this Easter here is Abla Amad’s recipe for Ma’amoul.
This recipe is from Abla’s Lebanese Kitchen, available exclusively from
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Ma’amoul
To make authentic ma’amoul you’ll need to source a ma’amoul mould from a Middle Eastern grocer.
Ingredients
3 cups (480g) fine semolina
250g unsalted butter, softened
½ tsp white sugar
1 tsp mahlab (optional)
1 tsp dried yeast
2 tbsp orange-blossom water
¼ cup (60 ml) milk
Icing sugar, for dusting (optional)
Filling
1 cup (120g) coarsely chopped pistachio nuts
¼ cup (55g) white sugar
1 tbsp orange-blossom water
Directions
Place semolina, butter and sugar in a bowl and rub together with your fingertips. Leave to rest for 1 hour covered with plastic film. Add the mahlab (if using), yeast, orange-blossom water and milk and mix together to form a dough. Turn out onto a work surface, then knead. Return to the bowl, cover and leave to sit for another 20 minutes.
Preheat oven to 220 C.
Knead the dough for 5 minutes to help bind together.
To make the filling, combine all the ingredients. Spoon 1 tbsp semolina dough into your hand and shape into a ball. Make a hole in the centre and fill with 1 tsp of the filling. Seal firmly and flatten slightly in the palm of your hand. Press the dough firmly into a ma’amoul mould, then tap out. Continue with the remaining dough and filling.
Place the ma’amoul about 2 ½ cm apart on baking trays and bake for 15 mins or until golden. Transfer to wire racks to cool. Sprinkle with icing sugar (if using). Ma’amoul can be stored in an air-tight container for up to 2 weeks.
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