For the dough:

• Mix the soft wheat semolina, flour, cornstarch, nutmeg, salt, and baking powder in a large bowl. Melt the butter with the sunflower oil and mix it in while still hot.
• Then add powdered sugar and vanilla sugar and start kneading.
• Wash our organic orange, grate the outer peel with a peeler, and set aside for our filling later.
• Now, press the juice from the orange.
• Make a hollow in the dough and add orange juice. Knead until it gets smooth. Form a ball, cover it with plastic wrap, and leave it to rest in the refrigerator for 3 hours or overnight.

For the date filling:

• Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F), and prepare a baking tray.
• Pit all the dates and place them in a tall pan, add water, oil, and a teaspoon of cinnamon.
• Now, chop our orange peel into tiny pieces with a knife and add them to the dates.
• Mix all with a food processor or hand blender; it will be a sticky mass.
• Roughly chop the walnuts and stir them to the mass with a spoon. To get the roll shape, take a piece of baking paper, put half the filling on it, and roll the sticky mass into a 35cm long roll. Repeat the process to get two rolls of filling.

Finish dates cookies:

• Use the edge of your hand to make a deep trench lengthwise in the dough roll.
• Slide our filling roll from the baking paper into it. Then, close the dough over the filling with your fingers.
• Smooth the dough by rolling back and forth on the surface
• To start decorating, I used a fork to draw a line pattern over the roll surface.
• Repeat the whole process with the second half of the dough.
• Finally, we cut the filled dough roll into 2cm thick slices and place them on the baking paper.
• Place it in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes at 180°C (350°F).

How to make Date cookies with a cookie mold (Maamoul mold):

• Form the filling into small balls using a scale measuring 14g each.
• Divide the dough into 25 balls weighing about 35g.
• Take a ball of dough in the palm of your hand and form a large hollow for the filling. Put a filling ball into it. Close the dough over the filling and roll it until you have a smooth ball.
• Press the filled ball into the Maamoul mold and tap the mold firmly on the prepared baking tray.
• Bake the Maamoul Date cookies for about 20 minutes at 180°C (350°F).