This is one of my favorite childhood nostalgic recipes. It reminds me of those school days when we used to sneak out to buy some of these warm sweet stuffed brioche bread, best days ever!
This traditional middle eastern bread is a sweet kind of brioche stuffed with dates and full of fragrances due to a blend of amazing middle eastern spices like cardamom and mahlab.
Soft and cloudy texture with a perfect brown glaze and a crunch of sesame seeds after baking. The date stuffing adds sweetness to this amazing brioche but not too sweet just the right amount.
I played more with the stuffing and tried several versions with:
Dates and pistachio
Dates and walnuts
Chocolate and caramel
And each one was better than the other, it is a matter of taste if you like nuts or not, but the plain one or those three combos above are equally very delicious and full of flavors.
This traditional stuffed brioche ring is called “ dates maarouk” “معروك بالتمر” . you can find it all around the middle eastern and Arabic countries. It a simple bread yet very elegant to serve in occasion.
It is the perfect on the go breakfast or mid-day snack with some tea, coffee or even milk.
One of the key ingredients that makes this brioche bread taste and smell absolutely irresistible is the mahlab. It is a traditional Mediterranean spice that can be found in middle eastern stores or online. But if you cannot find it you can replace it with different kind of spices like cardamom, cinnamon, turmeric or anise powder , it will give a similar smell and taste but honestly nothing compares to mahlab , it has its own unique flavor and taste .
So let’s start baking, and please do read the whole recipe with the notes in the bottom so you understand the whole process and see the substitutions options if you want to switch some ingredients according to what you find in your pantry. And all my baking tips
If you make this recipe, be sure to tag #annacookingconcept on Instagram, or leave a comment and rate the recipe below.
Aromatic Sweet Date Brioche “Maarouk”
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 2 cup (500ml ) warm milk
- 1 ½ tbsp instant yeast check note if using active dry yeast
- 1 cup (100g) brown sugar check notes
- 1 egg
- 1 egg white keep the yolk aside for brushing the top later
- 90 g butter melted
- 1 tbsp white vinegar
- 5 ½ cup (775g) whole wheat flour, check notes if using normal white flour
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder check notes if using normal white flour
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp cardamom powder optional
- 1 tsp mahlab powder
Top brushing:
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tbsp milk
- 1 tsp vinegar
- Sesame seeds for garnish
- Chopped walnuts, pistachio and chocolate for garnish (optional)
For the filling:
- 500 g date paste or pitted dates
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp cardamom
- 1 tbsp olive oil or butter
- Chopped pistachio optional
- Chopped walnuts optional
- Chopped salted caramel chocolate optional
Instructions
For the dough:
- Start with warm milk, add the yeast and sugar, and mix it through to activate the yeast. Add the eggs and mix. Add the butter and mix finally add the butter and mix all the wet ingredients until smooth.
- Add half the flour gradually while mixing in the wet ingredients. Add the baking powder, salt, mahlab and cardamom and mix it through. Then continue to add the flour and mix, switch to kneading when it turns hard to mix with the spatula. Keep kneading for about 10 minutes until you have a smooth and elastic dough. Depending on the flour you have in hand you made need more or less flour so keep kneading and adding till have the soft , smooth elastic dough.
- Brush a bowl with some oil , form the dough into a ball and add it to the bowl, cover it and let it rest in warm place for 1 hours until it rises and double in size .
For the filling:
- Prepare your filling. If you are using whole dates, blend your pitted dates until smoother texture. And if you are using already blended smooth paste skip the pitting and blending part. Add to the date paste the cardamom powder, cinnamon powder and butter and knead with your hands until mixed through and smooth.
- If you are going to use different nuts filling like I did, divide the date filling into two equal part (250g)
- Than divide one part into two equal parts of 125 g, knead each part with different kind of chopped nuts. one part with chopped pistachio and the other part with chopped walnuts.
- After the three different date filling dough is prepared start dividing into equal small balls of (30g) and shaping them into long cylinders and set aside.
- Chop your chocolates if you are using chocolate filling and set aside also.
The assembly:
- Divide the dough after 1 hour of resting into 15 equal balls, cover them with a wet clean towel while working. Shape each ball into a oval long shape, add one date cylinder or strip on the upper side of the dough, roll the dough over the filling and roll it till smooth with your hand , shape it like a big ring or bagel and slightly cut the edges to see the filling inside. Check the visual video down for clear understanding on how to shape these brioches.
- Cover and rest for 15 minutes. Use the same shaping techniques and are the fillings until you finish all. Preheat oven on 180C◦
- Mix the egg with egg yolk and vinegar to brush the top of the brioche, brush the brioche with the egg wash. Sprinkle sesame seeds on the plain dates filling ones, crushed pistachio on the filling with pistachio, crushed walnuts on the filling with walnuts and chopped chocolate on the chocolate filled ones.
- Arrange in a baking tray with some parchment paper and bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the mid rack of the oven until golden brown. remove from oven and cover with a clean towel and let it rest for 10 min before serving. (check notes on some baking tips)
Notes
- Active dry yeast: if you are using dry yeast instead of the one, I am using in this recipe you need to modify the quantity in the ratio of
1 ½ tbsp instant yeast = 2 tbsp active dry yeast
- Brown sugar: I use brown sugar in my recipe but if you don’t have or you prefer white sugar you can substitute with the same amount.
- Whole wheat flour: I use whole wheat flour in all my baking but this recipe work even better with white flour if you want to use it, just make sure you add more flour, because usually the whole wheat take more liquid than the white baking flour , to substitute the whole wheat flour in this recipe with white normal baking flour use this ratio
5 ½ cup whole wheat flour (775g) = 6 cups normal white flour (850g)
- Baking powder: if you are going to use white flour instead of the whole wheat flour, modify the quantity of the baking powder accordingly also.
Use 1 tsp baking powder for white flour instead of 1 ½ tsp for the whole wheat one.
- Baking tips: each oven differ from the other in the temperature and way of distributing heat. Try the first batch as indicated above in the recipe. If you notice that the bottom of your bread is getting burned quicker and the top t still not golden brown in color, this means the heat is to high. Adjust the temperature to lower (160 C◦ instead of 180 C◦), put the baking tray in the higher rack and to protect the button from burning , put the oven tray in the lower rack to keep the heat from burning the bottom before the top is golden brown. If the 20 min passed and still the top is not golden and the bottom is starting to turn dark brown, turn off the heat and broil the top for few minutes instead till you have the right color. It really depends on oven to oven, so you have to test and know your oven distribution of heat. With the right temp and heat distribution your bread should be fluffy and spongy from inside with a golden crispy color from the outside.
- Color and texture of the bread: because I am using healthier option of flor and sugar in this recipe the color and texture will not of course be the same as using the white flour and sugar. You can see in the pictures the inside of my brioche is little bit darker than the normal bread and the texture is denser that is normal with whole wheat flour and brown sugar. But if you like a white fluffier bread you can switch to white flour and white sugar as indicated in the notes above. I just prefer always to use healthier wholesome ingredients.
😍😍😍😍😍😍😍