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Halawa Mishmish

Use a natural, tart variety of dried apricots, not the sweetened or honeyed ones; they must also be soft. These keep well for weeks and are good to serve with coffee.

Recipe information

  • Yield

    makes about 50

Ingredients

1 pound dried apricots
Confectioners’ sugar
About 25 shelled pistachios to decorate

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Do not soak or wash the apricots, or you will produce a cream. Put them as they are in the food processor and blend them to a smooth paste, adding a very little water, by the teaspoon if necessary. Wash your hands and, wetting them or greasing them with a little oil so that the paste does not stick, take little lumps of paste and roll into marble-sized balls. Roll them in confectioners’ sugar and press half a pistachio on the top of each.

  2. Variations

    Step 2

    Mix 1/2 cup coarsely chopped pistachios with 2 tablespoons of sugar. Make a small hole in the center of each apricot ball, put in a little of the filling, close the hole again, and roll in confectioners’ sugar.

    Step 3

    Work 1/2 cup coarsely chopped pistachios into the apricot paste with your hands.

Cover of Claudia Roden's The New Book of Middle Easter Food, featuring a blue filigree bowl filled with Meyer lemons and sprigs of mint.
Reprinted with permission from The New Book of Middle Eastern Food, copyright © 2000 by Claudia Roden, published by Knopf. Buy the full book on Amazon or Bookshop.
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