Pistachio maamouls

I don't need much of an excuse to cook up a batch of maamouls as they are probably one of my favourite cookies to make. However, if I did need an excuse I found the perfect one in London last weekend - a maamoul mould. My granny used to have a few but along with her kitchen axe and massive cauldron they went AWOL after she died. This maamoul mould I bought from the rather fabulous Persepolis in Peckham. Well worth a detour to if you are hankering after all things Iranian (and generally Middle Eastern and scrumptious). 
A small note on a couple of the optional ingredients: mastic is a resin from the mastic tree (Pistacia lentiscus), it's used in quite a lot of Middle Eastern and Eastern Mediterranean sweets and desserts and lends a pine-y flavour to the finished dish. Mahlab is a spice made from the seeds of a particular species of cherry (Prunus mahaleb) and gives an almondy/cherry flavour to the dish. 

Ingredients
300g semolina
100g white flour
150g margarine / ghee
50g caster sugar
1/4 tsp ground mastic (optional)
1/4 tsp mahleb (optional)
1/4 tsp yeast
100ml orange blossom or rose water 

For the pistachio filling
100g pistachios
Sugar (to taste)
Orange blossom water

1. Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl, melt the margarine or ghee and pour in, along with the orange blossom or rose water. Mix together until it comes together in a large dough ball. Cover with plastic wrap and leave for around 4 hours. I should point out, in that time nothing particularly magical happens, it doesn't transform in size, the waiting period is more to allow the semolina to absorb the fat
2. While the dough is resting, blitz the pistachios in a blender and add sugar to taste and then the flower water until you have a fairly tough marzipan-ish paste
3. Pinch golf ball sized (or walnut, depending on your frame of reference) pieces of the dough and roll into balls. With this quantity you should have enough to make around 20 (ish) maamouls
4. Take a ball into one hand and flatten out with the heel of your other hand. Pinch off a teaspoonful of the pistachio paste and roll into a sausage. Place this in the middle of the flattened dough circle and close the dough around it to encase fully
5. At this point squish it in your maamoul mould, traditionally the oval ones are used for nut fillings, and the round for date. If you don't have a mould then you can decorate a pattern on the top with a fork
6. Arrange the maamouls on a baking tray covered with greaseproof paper and bake in an oven preheated to ~190C for 15-20minutes. You want the bottom golden, but the top to be lightly coloured
7. Cool, and dust with icing sugar to serve (or alternatively leave for 5 minutes and eat while hot... Mmmm)