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Kleicha

Name: Kleicha
Total time: 90 min
Yield: Serves 20
Cuisine: Iraq
Ingredients: 300g All-purpose flour; 150g Butter; 80ml Milk; 1 tsp Dry yeast; 2 tbsp Sugar; 1 tsp Cardamom powder; 250g Dates; 20g (for the filling) Butter; 2 tbsp White Sesame Seeds; from 1 Egg Yolk

Dessert

⏱ 90 min

👥 Serves 20

Difficulty ⭐⭐

Date paste rolled in cardamom-scented dough and baked — Iraq's national cookie.

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📖 The Story Behind This Dish

Kleicha is the cookie considered Iraq's national sweet: dough fragrant with cardamom and butter is wrapped around date paste or walnuts and sugar and baked. Essential for Eid and celebrations, whole families make hundreds to share with relatives and neighbors.

🌆 Where it's eaten: On the eve of Eid, women sit in a circle in an Iraqi kitchen, slicing date-filled rolls and lining them up on baking trays.

🥕 Ingredients (serves 20)

All-purpose flour 300g
Butter 150g
Milk 80ml
Dry yeast 1 tsp
Sugar 2 tbsp
Cardamom powder 1 tsp
Dates 250g
Butter 20g (for the filling)
White Sesame Seeds 2 tbsp
Egg Yolk from 1

👩‍🍳 Instructions

Knead the flour, melted butter, warm milk, yeast, sugar, and cardamom and rest 30 minutes.
Mash the pitted dates with butter over low heat into a paste.
Roll the dough thin into a rectangle and spread with the date paste.
Roll up from one end and cut into 1.5cm slices.
Brush with egg yolk, scatter with white sesame, and bake at 180°C for 20 minutes.
Let cool.

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