If you like having something sweet with your tea or coffee, Middle Eastern baking gives you plenty to choose from. There are crumbly butter cookies, syrup-soaked treats, date-filled maamoul, sesame-covered barazek, and delicate cookies scented with cardamom and rose. And while many have special connections to Ramadan, Eid, Nowruz, Purim, and other celebrations, you certainly don’t need to wait for a holiday to make them.
We’ve gathered 12 Middle Eastern cookie recipes, from long-standing regional favorites to a few newer twists on familiar flavors. Put the kettle on and see which one you want to bake first.
Şekerpare sits somewhere between a cookie and a syrup-soaked pastry, which makes them a little different from the usual treats you’ll come across. This Turkish favorite is baked until golden, then given a generous soak in lemony sugar syrup and left for a couple of hours to absorb it properly. Add a little pistachio or coconut before serving for some extra texture.
Maamoul are among the best-known Middle Eastern cookies internationally. Those intricate patterns are part of what makes maamoul so recognizable, and using a traditional mold is half the fun of making them at home. Break one open and you’ll find a sweet date filling tucked inside a crumbly semolina cookie that practically melts as you eat it.
They’re closely associated with holidays and celebrations across the Middle East, although there’s certainly no need to wait for one to make a batch. Have them with coffee or tea, or sneak one onto the breakfast table.
Cracked tops are usually something bakers try to avoid, but with Acıbadem cookies they’re exactly what you want. These traditional Turkish almond cookies are large, dense, and chewy, with a whole almond pressed into the top. After baking, two cookies are traditionally pressed together at the base to form a thick, sandwich-like pair. They’re a familiar sight in Istanbul pastry shops, but you can have a homemade batch ready in well under an hour.
Since these cookies use almond meal and almond flour instead of wheat flour, they’re naturally gluten-free.
Barazek are made to be eaten with coffee. These thin Syrian cookies come generously coated in sesame seeds, with chopped pistachios pressed onto the other side if you want to go all out. The trick is keeping them fairly thin and pale in the oven so they bake up crisp rather than becoming overly browned.
They’re traditionally served when guests come over and during celebrations and Ramadan, but a batch in the cookie tin sounds like a pretty good everyday arrangement too.
This is a Middle Eastern-inspired take on hamantaschen, the triangular pastries traditionally associated with Ashkenazi Jewish communities and the celebration of Purim. Instead of the classic poppy seed or prune fillings, this version uses creamy pistachio spread, while a touch of rose water in the dough brings in a floral note that works especially well with the nuts.
The recipe makes 36, which is handy if you’re baking for Purim or putting together a larger cookie spread. A final drizzle of pistachio cream and some chopped nuts make them especially pretty once they’re finished.
Nan-e Nokhodchi have been part of Persian Nowruz celebrations for generations, often appearing on trays of sweets or being given to friends and family. Their lovely flower or clover shape is associated with good fortune and prosperity, making them especially fitting for the Persian New Year.
The roasted chickpea flour is important here, giving the cookies a nuttier flavor than regular chickpea flour and helping create their famously delicate consistency, while remaining gluten-free. Let them cool completely before moving them from the tray because they’re particularly fragile while warm.
Ghorayeba keep things beautifully simple. This Egyptian recipe uses just three main ingredients, but ghee is the important one, giving the cookies their famously delicate, melt-in-your-mouth consistency. A couple of almond slivers pressed into the top are all the decoration they need. They’re also ready in about 35 minutes, making them an easy choice when you want something homemade to go with coffee or tea.
Elmalı kurabiye feel almost like tiny apple pastries disguised as cookies. The cinnamon-spiced apple filling is cooked until thick and jammy before being rolled inside soft cookie dough, with walnuts adding a little crunch. This recipe shapes them into small crescents and finishes them with a generous dusting of powdered sugar. They keep well for a few days too, and actually soften slightly as they sit, so there’s no problem making them ahead.
Tahini works surprisingly well in cookies, especially when you balance its earthy, nutty flavor with something as bright as lemon. These are soft and chewy rather than crisp, and they’re completely vegan. They’re a nice change from the richer butter- and nut-heavy cookies elsewhere on this list, particularly if you like your sweets with a little tang.
Un kurabiyesi are classic Turkish flour cookies with a very light, crumbly consistency that practically dissolves as you eat them. The key is not waiting for them to turn golden in the oven. They’re supposed to stay quite pale, then get a generous coating of powdered sugar while they’re still warm. This recipe makes around 30 in just 25 minutes, so it’s an easy batch to put together when the cookie tin needs a quick refill.
Not every cookie needs to be sweet. Tuzlu kurabiye are buttery, savory Turkish cookies traditionally served with tea and brought out for guests, weddings, and gatherings. Sesame and black sesame seeds are what give them their distinctive finish and toasty flavor. They’ll keep for several weeks in an airtight container, which makes a batch very useful to have around.
Cardamom is the flavor that really comes through in these cookies, backed up by almond and a little tang from the cream cheese. Before baking, each cookie is rolled in sliced almonds, which toast around the outside and give them a lovely golden, craggy finish. A dusting of powdered sugar makes them look almost snow-covered, so they’d be particularly pretty on a winter or holiday cookie tray.
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