On a night near the end of Ramadan, baking sheets fill the whole kitchen table. A mother rolls out the dough, the daughters shape the date paste into long strips and roll and cut, roll and cut. When the sweet smell of cardamom and butter drifts from the oven, the whole house is wrapped in the air of welcoming Eid. Kleicha is the date-filled cookie that Iraqi families bake for celebrations.
The night before Eid, a cookie baked with the family
The Al-Qassab sisters, who run an Iraqi sweets shop in London, call kleicha Iraq's national cookie in a recipe they contributed to the Middle East news site Middle East Eye. Whether it is a religious occasion or not, the sisters write, Iraqis never go without kleicha when they celebrate a special day. In their home, as the end of Ramadan approached they baked kleicha for Eid, and whatever the number of guests, they made the same amount every year.
The Smithsonian Folklife Festival in the United States also presents kleicha as a date cookie in the line of old Iraqi food traditions. The article says its history goes back to ancient Babylon and explains that it is a sweet made for Eid al-Fitr, the festival after Ramadan. However, how the ancient sweet connects to today's kleicha cannot be traced through specific records. Take the origin as a story Iraqi people have handed down.
The El-Mutwalli family from Baghdad, who appear in the Smithsonian article, have baked kleicha in Abu Dhabi since the 1970s and given it as gifts for Ramadan and Eid. The amount they give grew year by year, reaching as much as 500 kilograms in some years. They have also baked and handed out this sweet on days remembering family members who have died.
The dough is different from maamoul
When people think of Middle Eastern baked sweets stuffed with dates, many picture Lebanese or Syrian maamoul. According to the Al-Qassab sisters, the biggest difference between the two lies in the dough. Kleicha dough uses no semolina. A dough of flour with yeast bakes light and fluffy and gently wraps the sticky sweetness of the dates.
There are household customs in shape too. Those who value tradition press the dough into carved wooden molds to make patterns. On the other hand, the sisters write that rolling out the dough, rolling dates into it and cutting it is also widely accepted. This form, with a spiral of dates visible in the cut face, can be made at once in a home kitchen with no mold. The filling is not only dates either. There are several: walnuts with sugar and cardamom, coconut with sugar, pistachios with rose water, and it is normal to bake several kinds in the same house.
Ingredients (makes about 40)
Amounts are in ml and g to make them easy to weigh. The number you get varies from about 30 to 50 depending on how large you cut them.
Cardamom goes into both the dough and the dates, making it the pillar of the aroma of kleicha. If you have only whole pods, take the black seeds out of the pods, grind them in a mortar and use them as a powder. For the dates, choose soft ones that dent when pressed with a finger rather than dry, hard ones, and the work of making paste drops sharply. Nigella seeds are an aroma named in the Smithsonian article and in the spice substitutions in the Middle East Eye recipe, and black grains on the surface also tighten the look.
Dates differ considerably in sweetness and moisture by variety. If the paste is too stiff to spread, add oil 1 tsp at a time and bring it to a softness you can stretch by hand.
How to make kleicha
Bake in the oven at 190°C. Starting the preheat before you begin rolling out the dough, and lining the baking sheets with parchment paper, lets you bake right after shaping.
Kleicha contains wheat, egg and dairy (butter). If you make walnut or pistachio fillings, also watch for tree nut allergies. Also, warm date paste is high in sugar, and when it sticks to your hands the heat lingers. Work through the parchment paper when rolling, and handle it by hand only once it is cool enough to touch.
If you cook the dates long, the moisture goes and they turn hard, and after baking the filling is dry. Even in the Smithsonian recipe, it says to soften the dates only, not cook them. As soon as they can be crushed with a finger, take them off the heat.
If gaps form when you roll the dough, the dates and dough separate while baking. Press the first turn of the roll firmly with your fingers and roll while pushing out the air, and the spiral in the cut face comes out cleanly.
Bake in variety with walnuts or pistachios
The El-Mutwalli family recipe also lists nut fillings besides dates: walnuts or pistachios finely crushed and seasoned with sugar and rose water. Pistachio is wrapped in a small ball of dough to make a round shape, walnut is wrapped in dough and made into a half-moon, and the edges are pressed shut with a fork or fingers. Making the shape tell you the filling is a fun touch when baking different kinds.
The same recipe also introduces an unsweet kleicha with cheese and sesame: mozzarella and cheddar mixed into the dough, cut out with a cutter, sprinkled with sesame and baked at 190°C for 12–15 minutes. Setting sweet and unsweet ones side by side at teatime makes your hand reach out before you know it.
With tea or Arabic coffee
The Al-Qassab sisters write that the traditional way is to serve kleicha with hot tea or Arabic coffee. The aroma of cardamom goes well with both tea and coffee. Whether welcoming Eid visitors or for everyday teatime, piled high on a large platter it gives the atmosphere of an Iraqi family's living room.
Baking it side by side with Lebanese maamoul, which also wraps dates in dough, shows the difference between the crumbly semolina dough and the fluffy texture of yeast dough. To learn more about the Iraqi table, also read masgouf, the fish from the Tigris split open and grilled, and the flat kubba Mosul of Mosul.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it keep?
According to the Middle East Eye recipe, it keeps about a week in an airtight container. In humid seasons or in a warm room, eat it sooner.
Can I freeze it?
The Smithsonian recipe says kleicha suits freezing and can be reheated in an oven or toaster oven. The Middle East Eye recipe also describes freezing baked kleicha and thawing it at room temperature.
Can I use store-bought date paste?
Yes. The Middle East Eye recipe is based on mixing cardamom into commercial date paste. When you want to make it with less effort, mix 1/2 tsp cardamom into date paste, shape it into a long thin log and roll it in the dough.
Can I make it without a wooden mold?
Yes. The method introduced here, rolling and cutting the dates, needs no mold. If you use a mold, press a ball of dough wrapped around dates into the mold and tap it out lightly.
Sources
- Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Michele Bambling and Rebecca Fenton, "Kleicha: Iraqi Date Cookies, Gifts of Memory," 21 May 2020. Accessed and checked 22 October 2026. https://festival.si.edu/blog/kleicha-iraqi-date-cookies-gifts-of-memory
- Middle East Eye, Sura Al-Qassab and Nuha Al-Qassab, "How to make sweet date cookies from Iraq," 31 May 2019. Accessed and checked 22 October 2026. https://www.middleeasteye.net/discover/how-make-sweet-cookies-kleicha-recipe-iraq
