Kaak Nakache

Kaak Nakache — which translates from Arabic to “sculpted circle” — is a popular Algerian cookie. Infused with orange blossom water, the ring-shaped dessert has a sweet date filling, is flavoured with cinnamon and cloves, and has a crisp, shortbread-like exterior with a distinct crimped pattern. 

You also have the option to dress these cookies up a little more with pretty little orange blossoms made from almond paste.

Kaak Nakache was the Technical Bake for Cookie Week in Season 7 of The Great Canadian Baking Show.

Kaak Nakache

Ingredients

Dough:

• 2½ cups (355 g) all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
• ¾ cup (85 g) icing sugar
• ½ tsp fine sea salt
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 9 tbsp (127 g) unsalted butter, melted
• 1 egg yolk (set aside egg white for almond paste garnish, if making)
• ¼ cup 3.25% milk, room temperature
• 1 tbsp orange blossom water

Filling:

• 18 medjool dates, pitted
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• ¼ tsp ground cloves
• ¼ tsp fine sea salt
• 1 tbsp orange blossom water

Almond Paste Garnish (optional):

• 2 cups (168 g) finely ground almond meal
• 2 cups (226 g) icing sugar, plus extra for dusting
• 1 egg white
• 1 tsp orange blossom water
• White, yellow and green gel food colouring

Preparation

Dough:

Sift the flour, icing sugar, salt and baking powder into a wide, shallow bowl. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the butter, egg yolk, milk and orange blossom water. Pour the liquid ingredients into the well of the dry ingredients and mix by hand until a shaggy dough is formed. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead it until it forms a smooth, soft dough. The dough will be slightly greasy, not super elastic and will dry out quickly. 

Divide the dough in half, wrap each half in plastic wrap and flatten both into rectangles. Set aside while you make the date filling. 

Filling:

Pit the dates, place them in the bowl of a food processor and pulse a few times, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Add the cinnamon, cloves, salt and orange blossom water and puree until smooth. Portion the filling into 12 even pieces, about 21 g each (a bit less than a tablespoon), wetting or oiling your hands as needed to prevent sticking. Place the portions of date filling on a quarter sheet pan lined with parchment paper sprayed with cooking spray.

Assembly:

Heat the oven to 325 F. 

Dust your work surface with flour. Roll out one piece of dough to a ¼-inch-thick rectangle (about 6 by 18 inches). Using a pastry wheel and a ruler, divide the dough into six 6-by-3-inch rectangles. Repeat with the other piece of dough, working with one piece at a time and keeping the dough you are not working with covered with a damp towel.  

Using both hands, roll one date portion into a log. Place it on the long edge of one rectangle of dough, leaving about an inch on both ends with no filling. 

Roll the dough over the date filling and gently press down to seal it. Continue rolling the dough tightly all along its long log shape. If needed, brush the edge of the dough with water to seal it. Roll the dough back and forth a few times to even out the thickness as needed. Roll the whole log over so the seam is on the bottom, then join the ends together to form a ring, tucking one end inside the other. Gently pinch the dough to make the connection as seamless as possible. Place the cookies on a half sheet pan lined with parchment paper, and cover them with a damp towel.

Repeat this process with the remaining dough and date filling for a total of 12 cookies. 

To create the textured design on the cookies, use pastry tongs or maamoul tongs. Starting on the inside at the top of each cookie, crimp a line down the side and continue the pattern all the way around. The crimping lines should be close together.  

Bake the cookies until golden brown on the bottom, about 20 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through. Transfer to a wire rack to cool fully.

Almond Paste Garnish:

Place the almond meal, icing sugar, egg white and orange blossom water in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse a few times until a shaggy paste is formed, and then run the machine continuously until the almond paste is smooth.

Remove one-third of the paste from the food processor and place it on an icing sugar-dusted surface. Add a few drops of white food colouring to the paste still in the bowl and process, adding more food colouring as needed until the paste is pure white. Divide the paste that was removed from the food processor in half. Put on gloves. Add a few drops of yellow food colouring to one half and knead it in until the entire ball is yellow. Dust with icing sugar to prevent sticking. Repeat this process with the remaining almond paste and green food colouring.

Wrap the yellow and green almond paste portions in plastic to prevent them from drying out. Turn the white almond paste out onto an icing sugar-dusted surface. Roll it out to ¼-inch thick and punch out flower shapes using a small cookie cutter, dusting the cutter with icing sugar as needed. 

Roll out the green almond paste to ¼-inch thick and cut out shapes to create “leaves.” 

Roll tiny balls of yellow almond paste for the centres of the orange blossoms. Brush a little water in the centre of the flower with a paintbrush and add the yellow ball with tweezers. Attach green leaves to the blossoms as desired. 

Garnish the cooled cookies with the almond paste flowers, using water to stick if needed.

Makes 12 cookies