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    Home » Recipes » Dessert

    Ka'ak Asawer - Date Cookie Bracelets

    By Samara・Published:Oct 16, 2020・Updated: Oct 7, 2022・Post may have affiliate links.

    Jump to Recipe Print Recipe
    ka'ak asawer pinterest pin

    Date cookie bracelets, or ka'ak asawer (which translates to bracelet cookies because of their round shape), are definitely a Palestinian staple. You know those smells and flavors that truly transport you into a memory? I used to look forward to Eid mornings as a kid just so I could have some freshly baked ka'ak asawer with my tea, and just the smell of these takes me back to those simpler times. I'll share with you the simplest and quickest way to make these date-filled cookie bracelets, which are always a hit at any gathering.

    ka'ak date cookie bracelets

    What Are Aniseeds?

    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.

    Ingredient Notes

    • Date Paste: Ready-made date paste will probably 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 ½ cups of pitted dates with around 2 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.
    • Flour: I've made 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.
    • Olive Oil: My mom always gets me some extra virgin olive oil which she gets shipped from Palestine, but you can just use your favorite kind of olive oil. You can also 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.
    • Anise Seeds: These are definitely the secret ingredient. You'll love the way they make your whole house smell. They also make a great tea when boiled. You can't imagine how many health benefits anise seeds have!!
    • Sugar: You'll only need a tiny bit of white sugar for this date cookie recipe. I personally think the dates give it the perfect sweetness already. You can also use brown sugar if you prefer it.
    • Cinnamon: The sweet undertones of cinnamon mixed with the nutty flavor of anise is just heavenly.
    • Water: To know if your water's at the right temperature, stick your finger in it. If it's around your body temperature, it's perfect.
    • Baking Powder: You only need a pinch. It's what gives these cookies their crumbly exterior.
    • Salt: I prefer a pinch of sea salt. It deepens the flavor of the dates.

    How To Make Ka'ak Asawer

    Make these date bracelet cookies in three main steps: make the dough, prepare the date paste, and shape the bracelet cookies (and then bake).

    Make the 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.

    mix the flour, aniseeds, baking powder, sugar, and salt
    add the olive oil to the dry ingredients

    Gradually add in the warm water and knead by hand until your dough is smooth and shiny (knead for at least 5 minutes).

    mix the olive oil and dry ingredients together

    How To Make Date Paste

    Ready-made date paste for ka'ak asawer isn't always easy to find. If you can find it, it'll definitely make life easier. If you can't find ready-made date paste for these date cookies, just blend around 1 and ½ cups of pitted dates with around 2 tablespoon of hot water to make your own date paste. You're going to want to blend the dates very well in order to get a sticky paste. You can also add a tablespoon of olive oil.

    date paste

    How To Shape Ka'ak Into Bracelets

    Start by separating your dough into equal portions. This recipe will give you more or less around 20 cookies.

    balls of kaak cookie dough with aniseeds

    Roll the ball into a log, then flatten 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.

    flatten the kaak dough into a log
    add the date paste in the middle

    Pinch the edges well to seal them, then roll into "bracelets", or the date cookie's round shape.

    roll the kaak dough around the date paste
    form a log shape with the ka'ak dough

    After you roll them into the round shape, press down with your finger where both ends meet to make sure they won't unseal.

    make a bracelet shape

    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.

    ka'ak asawer bracelt cookie on a plate

    Tips For Making The Dough

    • 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.
    date bracelet cookies on a plate

    Storage

    These date-filled cookies can be stored at room temperature in an air-tight container for up to 2 weeks.

    Delicious Middle Eastern Desserts

    • Mafroukeh Pistachio Dessert With Cream
    • Date Ma'amoul Mad Bars
    • Qatayef Stuffed Pancakes (Walnuts or Cheese)
    • Homemade Turkish Delight (Raha or Lokum)

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    ka'ak date cookie bracelets

    Ka'ak Asawer - Date Cookie Bracelets

    Author: Samara
    Course: desserts
    Cuisine: palestinian
    Prep: 40 mins
    Cook: 30 mins
    Total: 1 hr 10 mins
    4.80 from 5 votes
    Print Pin Rate Email
    Servings 20 cookies
    Date cookie bracelets, or ka'ak asawer, are aromatic Palestinian cookies stuffed with date paste that are amazing with a cup of tea or coffee.

    Ingredients
     
    US Customary - Metric

    Date Bracelets

    • 2 cups all purpose flour
    • 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 dated
    • 2 tablespoon hot water

    Instructions

    • 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 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).
    • 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.
    • Let cool before serving.

    Notes

    1. Store date cookies at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

    Nutrition

    Serving: 1cookie | Calories: 131kcal | Carbohydrates: 20.8g | Protein: 1.6g | Fat: 5.2g | Saturated Fat: 0.7g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0g | Trans Fat: 0g | Cholesterol: 0mg | Sodium: 1mg | Fiber: 1.4g | Sugar: 9.7g

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    About Samara

    Hi! My name is Samara Alkhammach. I’m half Syrian, half Palestinian, with a few other nationalities in the mix. I was born and raised in Kuwait, and currently live in Cairo, Egypt. I have a deep love for yoga, art, the kitchen, and bringing people together through them all.

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      Recipe Rating




    1. Mérida

      August 30, 2022 at 11:25 am

      5 stars
      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!

      Reply
      • Lily

        August 30, 2022 at 11:29 am

        Thank you so much for the review Merida! Shaping the rings take some practice lol.

        Reply
    2. John

      June 27, 2022 at 8:35 pm

      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?

      Reply
      • Lily

        June 28, 2022 at 7:30 am

        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!

        Reply
        • Anonymous

          June 28, 2022 at 11:08 pm

          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

          June 29, 2022 at 6:48 am

          Thanks for the comment and the feedback!

    3. Layla's mummy

      March 31, 2022 at 7:27 am

      4 stars
      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*

      Reply
      • Lily

        March 31, 2022 at 7:31 am

        Thank you so much for the comment and the substitutions you made!

        Reply
    4. maysa masadeh

      April 27, 2021 at 8:31 pm

      Can you replace some of the flour with sameed?

      Reply
      • Lily

        April 28, 2021 at 9:58 am

        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!

        Reply
    5. Katia chahine ( lebanon)

      April 02, 2021 at 3:54 am

      I liked her comment ,
      But i m going to make it like your recepie .
      Thank you

      Reply
      • Lily

        April 02, 2021 at 8:31 am

        Let us know how it turns out! Hope you like them.

        Reply
    6. Abeer

      February 01, 2021 at 10:54 am

      5 stars
      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.

      Reply
      • Lily

        February 01, 2021 at 11:25 pm

        Thank you so much for taking the time to comment and sharing your tips! So glad you liked them!

        Reply

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