carob molasses twist cookies are crispy from the outside and so fluffy and soft from the inside with an aromatic earthy sweet carob flavor that will change your taste buds forever. ideal cookies for dipping in warm milk or with some tea. easy Lebanese inspired cookies recipe with mouthwatering middle eastern aromatic ingredients.
Servings 100cookies
Ingredients
For White dough:
3 ½cupfloursee notes
1cupsugar
½cupneutral vegetable oil
¼cupmelted butter
1cupyogurtLaban
1 ½tspbaking powder
½tbspbaking soda
¼tspnutmeg powder
½tspmahlab powderoptional
For carob molasses dough:
5cupfloursee notes
1cupcarob molassessee notes
½cupneutral vegetable oil
¼cupmelted butter
1cupyogurtLaban
1 ½tspbaking powder
½tbspbaking soda
¼tspnutmeg powder
½tspmahlab powderoptional
Instructions
For the white dough:
First in a deep mixing bowl , or in the bowl of your mixer, mix the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, nutmeg, mahlab and sugar) together except the baking soda .
Mix the baking soda with ½ cup of yoghurt to react and set aside.
Add the oil and butter to dry ingredients and knead until everything is mix well together. Add the ½ cup of yogurt and keep kneading. Start adding the other half of the yoghurt 1 tbsp at the time while kneading until you have a smooth lean dough ball. you might not need the whole ½ cup of yoghurt it depends on the flour you are using, for that reason it is better to add it gradually until you have a smooth dough. It should not be sticky; it should be very smooth and easy to shape and work with.
Brush a deep bowl with some oil and lay the dough in it cover and let it rest in a warm place for 30 minutes before working with it.
For the carob molasses dough:
Same steps as the white dough but instead of the sugar we put carob molasses. This dough will need more flour because of the carob liquid. So, we start by mixing all the dry ingredients expect the baking soda in a deep bowl (flour, baking powder, nutmeg and mahlab)
Mix the baking soda with ½ cup of the yoghurt and set aside.
Add the oil, butter and carob molasses to dry ingredients and knead till everything is mixed. Add the ½ cup of yogurt with baking soda to the dough mixture and knead and start adding the other half one tablespoon at the time until you have a smooth soft dough. Brush another deep bowl with some oil and lay the dough in it cover and let it rest in warm place for 30 minutes before working with it.
For shaping and baking:
Preheat your oven on 180 C ◦ with the oven rack in higher middle level in the oven.
You can shape these cookies the way you wanted into 10 to 15 cm rings. in the video below you can see how I shaped them into those white and carob molasses braided rings.
Another easier option you can divide each dough into 4 smaller doughs and roll each part into a long cylinder as thick as your forefinger approximately. Divide the strips into 15 cm long strips. Gently fold dough strips into an upside down “u”. Working from the right side each time, twist the right dough over the left three times, pressing the ends together after the final twist.
Or you can just make on big twist and press the end together to form a ring similar shape. You can also dip their top with some sesame seeds for an extra crisp. Just mix some sesame with 2 tbsp water and 1 tbsp carob molasses and dip the cookies in it. as you can see in the video below we tried many shapes.
Line some baking sheet into your baking tray and arrange the cookies on it with keeping some distance between them (3cm) .
Bake them for 10 minutes than keep an eye on them for extra 2 minutes until they are golden brown from top. You need to keep close eye last two minutes because they will quickly burn. Just when they start to take that golden light brown color remove from the oven. Cover and let it rests for 5 minutes before removing from tray.
Serve with some warm milk or tea and enjoy!
Notes
Notes:
Flour: I used all purpose flour in this recipe. Depending on the flour you will use more or less quantity of liquid in this case the yoghurt, for that reason I always keep half of my yoghurt quantity to add gradually so I can have a smooth dough.
Neutral oil: like sunflower seeds, canola or in my case I used grapeseed oil, any neutral taste oil work. I don’t recommend using oils with strong flavors like coconut oil because it will affect the final taste of the cookies.
Carob molasses: if you don’t find the carob molasses you can switch to normal dark molasses to make the dark chocolaty dough.
Storing: these cookies can be stored in an airtight container for 2 weeks in room temperature and for 2 months in the fridge , you can even freeze them for up to 6 months and they will stay very fresh.