Date bracelet cookies, or ka'ak asawer (which translates to bracelet cookies because of their round shape), are definitely a Palestinian staple. This vegan cookie recipe uses date paste, flour, anise seeds, sugar, ground cinnamon, and olive oil.
Anise Seeds
These date cookies have a special flavor and aroma because of the aniseeds. Aniseeds are little seeds that kind of smell like licorice, and you'll usually find them used in lots of Palestinian dishes. You'll usually find them at any store that sells spices and herbs. Aniseeds or anise are called yansoon in Arabic, and my mom used to boil them to make tea. They're known to help with stomach aches and digestion.
Date Paste
Ready-made date paste may be at your local supermarket, which is super easy to work with by hand because it has a firmer texture. Or you can make your own, as I did, by blending around 1 and ½ cups of pitted dates with around two tablespoons of hot water. This will give you a stickier date paste. The best type of dates to use for this method is softer varieties like Medjool or safawy dates, because they'll blend easily without you needing to add too much water.
How To Make Ka'ak Asawer
Start by mixing the dry ingredients. Flour, aniseeds, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Add in the olive oil and mix by hand until the flour mixture gets the texture of wet sand. Gradually add in the warm water and knead by hand until your dough is smooth and shiny (knead for at least 5 minutes).
Separate your dough into equal portions. This recipe will give you more or less around 20 cookies.
Make Date Paste
Ready-made date paste for ka'ak asawer isn't always easy to find. If you can't find ready-made date paste for these date cookies, make your own. Blend around 1 and ½ cups of pitted dates with around 2 tablespoon of hot water to make your own date paste. You can also add a tablespoon of olive oil for a smoother texture.
⭐️ The easiest way to blend the date paste is using a hand immersion blender inside a flat bottom jar. ⭐️
How To Shape Ka'ak Into Bracelets
Roll the ball into a log, then flatten it with your hand until you get a long oval shape. Make sure to leave around 1 cm of dough on each end, so you'll be able to seal the date cookies without the filling spilling out. You'll figure out exactly how much date paste each cookie needs. Overfilling them will make it hard to shut, and underfilling them will give you a blander cookie.
Pinch the edges well to seal them, then roll them into "bracelets", or the date cookie's round shape. After you roll them into the round shape, press down with your finger where both ends meet to make sure they won't unseal.
Repeat until all your dough is rolled into cookie bracelets. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 ℉ (180 ℃) for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the bottoms are golden.
Recipes Notes
- The dough: When you make the dough, make sure you mix the dry ingredients really well before adding olive oil. And then when you do add the olive oil, you want to end up with a texture that's kind of like wet sand. This will make sure the olive oil is evenly incorporated.
- The water: Add the warm water gradually while you knead the date cookie dough. You might need slightly more or slightly less water, depending on the type of flour you use. You should end up with a super soft and easily workable dough. It shouldn't be too tough or sticky or else it'll be hard to shape.
- Allow date cookie dough to rest. For the best ka'ak cookies try to let your dough rest for at least an hour. You can work with it straight away of course, but I found that resting the dough gives you a flakier date cookie.
Looking for more Middle Eastern desserts? Try rosewater rice pudding, ma'amoul mad, crème caramel, pistachio halva, mafroukeh, or aish el saraya. Another great dessert with dates is chocolate-covered almond dates with coconut.
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📋 Recipe
Date Bracelet Cookies (Ka'ak Asawer)
Ingredients
Date Bracelets
- 2 cups all purpose flour see note 2
- ½ cup olive oil
- ½ cup warm water
- 2 teaspoon aniseeds
- 3 tablespoon white sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup date paste see ingredients below
- 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Date Paste
- 1½ cups pitted dates Medjool or safawy
- 2 tablespoon hot water
- 1 tablespoon olive oil optional
Instructions
Make Ka'ak Dough
- Start by mixing the dry ingredients. Flour, aniseeds, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Add in the olive oil and mix by hand until the flour mixture gets the texture of wet sand. Gradually add in the warm water and knead by hand until your dough is smooth and shiny (knead for at least 5 minutes).
- Divide the dough into equal parts and roll into little balls. This recipe will give you around 20 cookies, so divide accordingly.
Make Date Paste
- Make your date paste. Blend pitted dates and hot water using a hand immersion blender. Mix your date paste with cardamom (and optionally a tablespoon of olive oil).
Make Cookie Bracelets
- Roll a little ball of dough into a log, then flatten with your hands. Fill with date paste in the middle. Fold the dough over the date paste so you have a cylinder. Pinch both ends and fold into a circle, then use your finger to press both ends together.
- Repeat until all your dough is rolled into cookies.
- Bake in a preheated oven at 350 ℉ (180 ℃) for 25-30 minutes, or until the bottoms are golden. Cool before serving.
Notes
- Store at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.
- Flour: Make these cookies with white all-purpose flour and with wholemeal flour. If you prefer wholemeal, use equal parts wholemeal and white flour, because the texture will be off if you only use wholemeal flour.
- Fat substitutes: You can use half olive oil and half ghee. I'm personally not a huge fan of the flavor ghee gives these cookies, and I think olive oil compliments them just perfectly. But it's really up to you.
Susan Nicolas
This is an amazing recipe! I just got back from Morocco, where I tried these and wanted to make them myself. I had dates and olive oil from the Had Draa (Moroccan farmer's market) so this was a perfect use for them. Making these is a lovely meditative process, and the amounts you give are right on, there is JUST enough date paste! Plus they're pretty simple and very delicious - thank you for this recipe!
Lily
Thanks for the comment!! I bet they tasted phenomenal with Moroccan dates and olive oil!
Christine
Greetings,I shall try this when I have olive oil I m out. I love dates I've never heard of these cookies. I feel sad for Palestine. I wish I could help more than pray. I'll make these cookie bracelets what is best for olive oil for these cookies please? Thank you.
Lily
When buying olive oil, I usually try to buy it “unblended”. I recommend extra virgin olive oil too.
Annette Bejany
I have made this recipe over and over again. My family loves the flaky texture of the dough, he aroma of the spices, and the just enough sweetness of the date filling. However, your instructions aren’t clear as to where the cinnamon goes- with the dates or with the dough. So I’ve experimented and our favorite is NO cinnamon, but we add freshly grated nutmeg to the dough. Thanks for this lovely recipe!
Lily
Wow, thanks for the comment and tips Annette!
Zaina
Hi Lily! I want to make these for my babies, so wondered if you thought it would work ok if I omitted the sugar? Might give it a try anyway but thought to ask in case you thought to definitely wouldn’t work! Thanks!
Lily
Hi Zaina! That’s a great question… I am not sure how they will turn out. Not sure if you want to split the dough into two batches, one with sugar and one without to see the impact it makes. Let us know how they turn out!
Gemma
Okay, these turned out great! Followed the recipe exactly as written. I found however, if you put the date paste in a zip lock, cut a hole in the corner and pipe it into the cookie it’s much easier than spreading. Also added egg wash at the end for a shiny golden finish. Looked and tasted beautiful.
Lily
Hi Gemma thank you for the comment, the idea to pipe the date paste is brilliant!
Mérida
Oh my god. So good. Iv never had a date bracelet so I wasn’t sure what to expect but these are super easy to make and a really beautiful flavor. I left the dough in the fridge for 1hr and accidentally added the aniseeds in with all the other dry ingredients but they still turned out great.
You can really see which of mine where my first rings vs my final 😹 no matter what they looked like they were delicious. I can’t wait to make them again!
Lily
Thank you so much for the review Merida! Shaping the rings take some practice lol.
John
The dough came out really sticky and too soft even after l let it rest for an hour. I added a little more flour but it didn't help.l'm gonna let it rest over night and see if that helps Meanwhile, I'm thinking shouldn't we be using yeast for the dough?
Lily
Hi John thanks for the comment! These cookies don’t use yeast. I would continue adding a little bit of flour while kneading until the cookie dough is less sticky. You want the cookie dough pliable to form the bracelets. Did you add the date paste into the dough? I’m trying the think of ways the dough can get super sticky and that might be one of them!
Anonymous
I let the dough rest overnight And the next morning the dough was fine. I have made these cookies before Always used smeed But I thought I'd try using your recipe this time I have to be honest and say I like the ones with this meat much better thank you
Lily
Thanks for the comment and the feedback!
Layla's mummy
Loved these!
Okay so I replaced the olive oil with vegetable oil and replaced the sugar with around a tablespoon of honey in the warm water. I didn't have any aniseed so used three tablespoons of cardamom powder instead.
I accidentally added all the liquid to the dry ingredients but I kneeded and it looked okay. I left it for around 2 hours and put my tray in not realising my oven was set to grill not oven but I noticed as the tops browned so quickly switched to oven setting. Left for another 20 mins and I'm in love. *Happy dance*
Lily
Thank you so much for the comment and the substitutions you made!
maysa masadeh
Can you replace some of the flour with sameed?
Lily
We haven't tried it with sameed, but think it can work if you replace around half the flour. Let us know how it turns out!
Katia chahine ( lebanon)
I liked her comment ,
But i m going to make it like your recepie .
Thank you
Lily
Let us know how it turns out! Hope you like them.
Abeer
I made these and they turned out great. They taste so good. Some changes I made: I used a coffee grinder to grind the aniseed to powder and used ziyad date paste for the filling. I didn’t add anything to the date paste but added a teaspoon of maamoul spice to the dough. My husband and kids loved them. I will be making these again.
Lily
Thank you so much for taking the time to comment and sharing your tips! So glad you liked them!