Kleicha (Persian: کلوچه, romanized: koluche; North Mesopotamian Arabic: كليچة, romanized: klēči, Mesopotamian Arabic: كليچة, romanized: kilēča; Najdi Arabic: كليجة, romanized: k(i)lēja; Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܟܠܝܟ̰ܐ, romanized: kleča;[2] Turkish: kiliçe) is a type of Middle Eastern cookie.
Kleicha comes in several traditional shapes and fillings. The most popular are the ones filled with dates (kleichat tamur). There are also sweet discs (khfefiyyat), as well as half moons filled with nuts, sugar and/or desiccated coconut (kleichat joz). They are usually flavoured with cardamom and sometimes rose water, and glazed with egg wash, which may sometimes be scented and coloured with saffron.[3]
Muslims make kleicha for Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha and also for their celebrations, weddings or special ceremonies and they are stuffed with many different fillings like dates, pistachios, walnuts, coconuts, dried figs, sesame seeds or Turkish delight. While Iraqi Jews make it for Hanukkah.[4]
Assyrians bake kilecheh on Eeda Gura, Easter, and Eeda Sura, Christmas, on which they are usually stuffed with dates and served with tea.[5]
Etymology
From Middle Persian [Book Pahlavi needed] (kwlʾck' /kulāčag/, lit. 'small, round bun').[6] Historically, kleicha may be traced back to the ancient Sumerian ‘qullupu'[1]
Origin
The origins of kleicha can be traced back to ancient Mesopotamia, where Sumerians would prepare this cookie to celebrate the New Year and Ishtar, one of the more prominent goddesses in ancient Sumerian mythology. Spring represented rebirth and renewal, which coincided with Ishtar's power of fertility. To honor the goddess, ancient Sumerians would bake qullupu, the kleicha's ancestor. These cookies were shaped to resemble a full or crescent moon that symbolized the arrival of Spring, which was often marked by the first full moon in late March or early April.[1][7]
Varieties
Saudi Arabia
Although the name is somewhat similar, Klēja in the Najd region of Saudi Arabia (Qassim and Haʼil provinces) differs in taste, shape and ingredients from Iraqi kleicha. It is made with yeasted dough that has been enriched with spices, such as cardamom and cinnamon, and filled with a mixture of either date, sugar, or honey molasses and spices, typically cardamom, but also black dried lime, cinnamon, and ginger.[8]
References
- ^ a b c Nasrallah, Nawal. "The Iraqi Cookie, Kleicha, and the Search for Identity".
- ^ Rink, Friedrich Theodor; Vater, Johann Severin (1802). Arabisches Sprisches und Chaldäisches Lesebuch: #b das arabische grösstentheils nach bisher ungedruckten Stücken mit Verweisungen auf die Grammatik und mit erklärenden Wortregistern herausgegeben (in German). Siegfried Lebrecht Crusius. p. 35.
- ^ "Delights from the Garden of Eden: An Iraqi Cookbook". Archived from the original on 2008-05-13. Retrieved 2007-12-15.
- ^ "THE HIRSHON IRAQI (SUMERIAN) DATE AND WALNUT KLEICHA COOKIES". The Food Dictator.
- ^ "Assyrian Voice Library - Kileche". Archived from the original on 2013-06-29. Retrieved 2013-06-29.
- ^ Mackenzie, D. N. (2014). A Concise Pahlavi Dictionary. p. 52. doi:10.4324/9780203462515. ISBN 9781136613968.
- ^ Lozano, Gabriella. "Kleicha: History and Culture".
- ^ "Kleja".
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