Iraqi Christian Kadeh/Chaldean kadeh /Assyrian Gada/ الكادي الكليجة العراقية/

#kelecha #keleche #كليجة #iraqisweets #iraqipastry #iraqifood #chaldeanfood #assyrianfood #cffrecipes #cookingforfunpage #christmascookies #eastercookies #eidcookies #cookies #pastries
#Gade #Gada #كليجة #كادي #ketetarif

of course every Christmas and Easter, my mom would make kleecha and Kadeh and send me my portion. Everything my mom makes would taste delicious. Even if I made same
recipe, hers would taste better :). So this year I am far from her, I took a challenge of making her recipe of making Kadeh :). Well let me tell you they turned very good and delicious but not like hers :):). I love my mom to death. God Bless you nana.


Ingredients:



For the dough:

4 cup flour
1 pkg yeast (1/4 oz)(2 1/4 Tsp)
1 cup melted butter (or half butter and half vegetable ghee or margarine. I used half ghee and butter )
1 cup warm milk
2 Tbsp. sugar
1-2 tsp cardamom (a must )
1 tsp black seeds (haba soda) optional
1/2 tsp mahaleb cherry, aka the St Lucie cherry spice (optional)
1 ½ tsp salt

-Mix dry ingredients together
-Add warm milk and melted butter and mix very well then knead the dough by hand or the machine for about 5 to 10 minutes.
-Cover the dough and put it in warm place to rise for about 2 to 3 hours. You may need more warm milk. It depends on the kind of the flour. Your dough should be soft but not sticky.


To make the filling (Mortokha) :-

1 cup white flour
1/2 cup ghee (Samina /clarified butter. I used vegetarian Gazelan brand )
¼ tsp salt
1 cup warm water

For making homemade ghee (Samina/ clarified butter) you can check this link :-

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...


-Heat ghee in a pan on low flame until the ghee is melted and hot.
-Add flour and salt then mix constantly for about 8-10 minutes or until you reach light brown color or a color of your desire and the flour starts to release oil.
-Add the water little by little. Be careful at this stage as the steam may burn your hand. Mix for a few minutes until it becomes one piece and the oil oozes from the sides.
-Turn the heat off and the filling (Mortokha) is ready.
-Let it gets cold and solid. You can put it in the fridge to solidified.




Steps:

-Preheat the oven into 400 F or 200 C

-Whisk one egg with splash of milk and sit aside.

-When the dough is risen, divide it into eight parts or any number depends on the size of your Kade.

-Make each part into ball and sit aside and cover for a few minutes.

-With your hand open one ball into big circle then add around 2 Tbsp of the filling then bring all the edges together and then flatten the top. With rolling pin flatten the ball seam side down into round shape with ¼ inch thickness and around 5 inch diameter or bigger.

-You can make half-moon shape instead round shape and flatten again with rolling pin and then crimp the edges like shown in the picture.

-Make any design on top of the Kade. You can make indentation with the edge of the small spoon

-Arrange on a baking pan lined up with parchment paper.

-Poke with fork into many places so the steam can escape.

-Brush with egg wash and bake until golden brown. Mine took 30 minutes.

Note:- You can add sugar to the filling because some like their filling sweet !! So you can add 1/2 cup sugar to the warm water and let the sugar dissolve before adding it to the flour and butter mixture.

Enjoy :)