Malta

MALTA: Imqaret

Can be served alone or with ice cream. Divine!

INGREDIENTS:

For the filling:

800 grams pitted dates chopped
Zest of 2 lemon, 2 orange and 2 clementine
1 tablespoon lightly crushed aniseeds
1 tablespoon aniseed liqueur
Juice of 2 oranges and 2 clemntines
2 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoon cloves

For the pastry:

830 grams flour
200 grams butter
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon lightly crushed aniseeds
320 ml water
Vegetable oil for frying and baking (I use sunflower oil)
Icing sugar to finish

DIRECTIONS:

Prepare the pastry by mixing the baking powder and flour together. Sift.
Add in the aniseeds and mix well.

Rub in the butter with the flour mixture until the resemblence of fine bread crumbs.

Slowly add in the water and mix with a knife until the dough starts to form.

Knead for a few minutes and leave to rest while you make the filling.

Add all the filling ingredients into a small pot and cook on a stove pot for about twenty minutes until the consistency is smooth.
Leave aside to cool for about an half an hour.

Cut the pastry into 6 pieces.

Roll one of the pieces of pastry into a rectangle shape of approximately 15 x 50 cm.
Take ⅙ of the date mixture and spread along half of the pastry (across 7.5 cm x 50 cm ) but make sure to leave some space along the edge to be able to fold the other half of the pastry.

Wet the edges with water.

Fold the other half of the pastry over the pastry with the date mixture and seal the ends.

Cut along the mixture diagonally to form 11 diagonal shapes.

Do this for the other 5 pieces of pastry.
Turn the heat to the highest setting but when oil is ready (when a small amount of pastry sizzles) and then reduce to moderate heat so that the edges of the imqaret do not burn when entered into the oil.

Deep fry in a pan with hot vegetable oil for about 1 minute on each side.

If baking the imqaret, with a pastry brush, brush the imqaret with the vegetable oil.
Place into a preheated oven of 200 C for about 18 minutes, turning over half way.

Sprinkle with icing sugar and serve on their own or with ice cream.