If you’re not familiar with this classic cookie, you soon will be because they’re too good to pass up. So whether you call them by their original name, Megulgalot Tmarim, or you go with the easier “Date Spread Cookies,” just bake them!
Megulgalot Tmarim are a popular treat in Israel, a delicate and flaky cookie, with a hint of sweet date flavor. They’re perfect for your Shabbos morning tea or to serve after a meal.
There are many varieties of this cookie, many different ways of preparing it, some involving margarine or butter as well. When we heard from Chavy Schwartz that these are amazing AND also kinda healthier than the original, we listened. And we baked.
The results were amazing and many, many eaten cookies later we got in touch with Chani Lefkowitz, the original recipe creator. She told us that she had adapted the original recipe which used margarine to a healthier fat like avocado oil and never looked back. So thank you Chani for that!
We took it a step further and tried filling it with apricot jam and it was delicious too. Next, we will try chocolate spread and maybe raspberry jam too!
There’s a few steps, but there’s actually very few ingredients, so it’s not as hard as they look. Let’s start.
Combine flour, baking powder, oil, and orange juice or water in a bowl and knead together.
The dough needs to be refrigerated for one hour. You can divide it in two now, or later.
Place the one half of the dough on a piece of parchment paper, cover with another piece of parchment, and roll flat into a large rectangle (leave the other half of the dough in the fridge until you’re ready for it).
Smear half of the date spread to cover the dough.
Get the spread all the way to the edges.
Roll the dough to create a long roll, jelly-roll style, using the parchment paper to help you.
Keep rolling…nice and tight.
Almost there…
Seal the edge once you get to the end.
Transfer the roll to a lined baking pan.
Now, do it again with the other half of the dough.
Cut slits in the rolls, cutting halfway through, every ½ inch or so. Now we’re ready to bake.
Oh, yum. These bake for about 35 minutes.
Once you take them out of the oven, slice through each cut to make separate cookies. Once you’ve done that, they should be cool enough and ready to be sprinkled with a generous amount of confectioners’ sugar.
They’re looking amazing! These freeze really well! Just take them out of the freezer when you need them.
Date Spread Cookies
Ingredients
- 3 ½ cups white spelt flour (or white flour)
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 ¼ cups oil (can use avocado oil or any oil you prefer)
- ½ cup orange juice, or water
- 1 ½ cups (1 jar ) date spread (or, apricot jam, chocolate spread, raspberry jam…)
- confectioners' sugar, for sprinkling
Instructions
- Combine flour, baking powder, oil, and orange juice or water in a bowl.
- Refrigerate dough for 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).
- Divide dough in two. Leave one half of the dough in the refrigerator. Place the other half of dough on a piece of parchment paper, cover with another piece of parchment, and roll flat into a large rectangle.
- Smear half of the date spread to cover the dough.
- Roll the dough to create a long roll, jelly-roll style, using the parchment paper to help you.
- Transfer to a lined baking pan. Repeat with the remaining half of the dough.
- Cut slits in the rolls, cutting halfway through, every ½ inch or so.
- Bake for 35 minutes.
- Slice through each cut to make cookies and sprinkle with a generous amount of confectioners' sugar. Freezes well. Best if stored in freezer; defrost as needed .
I love these cookies and wanted a recipe! Thank you for posting- I can’t wait to try them!! Best part is that I recently started using only white spelt so I’m really glad this calls for that and no Margarine!
Yum!! All I can think of is trying these with lotus butter
I tried lotus, you can’t taste it so much.
I did babka filling, lotus and date syrup and the chocolate was the best by far!
Is there any way to make date spread myself? Havent seen it where i live
YUM these look amazing!!
yay an EGGLESS cookie recipe!!!
with the egg shortage these days I’m looking for recipes like this!
can you make a post of eggless cookie/cake recipes?
This looks divine!
Just confirming – a Tablespoon seems like a lot of baking powder – is it supposed to say a tablespoon or teaspoon?
Thanks!
This looks divine!
Just confirming – a Tablespoon seems like a lot of baking powder – is it supposed to say a tablespoon or teaspoon?
Thanks!
That’s always the pastry I pick up in Israel!! And so happy to see no margarine! Can’t wait to try it!
Can apple juice be used in place of orange juice ?
1 tablespoon of baking powder or 1 teaspoon?
My dough came out super oily and piecey like – wouldn’t combine into a nice dough even when i added an extra cup of flour. Is 1 1/4 cup of oil correct? I used Leibers avocado oil and white spelt flour like the recipe says and mixed with a gloved hand just like in the photos… help
This is normal. It’s not a typical dough. Its normal for the oil to separate while being refrigerated.
I LOVE this! I’ve made this in “rugelach” and they have been a huge hit!
I also make my own date spread: put checked dates into very hot boiling water. Let it sit for a while. After an hour or two, put the dates (minus most the liquid in a food processor and… there you have it! (Save some of the liquid in case the date mixture is too thick; you can make it thinner by adding that “date water”.
I’ve made this on repeat! Best eaten straight from the freezer 🙂