Shosh Shushan's Moroccan Cookies Recipe

For Shosh Shushan (55), a Shabbat without cakes and cookies is incomplete. Before the war, these sweets were an integral part of her Shabbat morning ritual at home in Kiryat Shmona, a small city near the border with Lebanon. After her husband would return from synagogue, the entire family, including her five children, their spouses, and two grandchildren, would gather for the sweets along with coffee and tea. 

In the first few weeks after she and her family were evacuated to a hotel in Tel Aviv, Shosh ensured the tradition kept going. She made a point to visit bakeries and pastry shops, purchasing cakes and cookies for her fellow evacuees (“even though Tel Aviv is very expensive,” she says) and served them with mint tea, just as she did at home. It was during that time that she connected with Etti Yana, another Kiryat Shmona evacuee, and they became friends. For The Open Kitchen Project, the two joined forces, cooking in Esti Rot’s kitchen in Tel Aviv. 

Shosh’s husband hails from Morocco, while she was born in Israel to parents who immigrated from the North African country. On ordinary days, you will always find her stocked up on Moroccan cookies at home. “I make them frequently, especially during the winter,” she shares with her host while effortlessly producing another batch using a cookie press. “I typically make ten times the amount here,” she gestures towards the trays containing at least a hundred cookies. Shosh’s cookies are usually pareve, so she makes them with margarine, however butter can also be used as it is in this recipe. 

Shosh herself is a well-oiled sweets-making machine. At any given moment, she places three loaf cakes in the oven and retrieves five yeast-risen cakes, and on and on. She tells her host that a single oven is insufficient, prompting Esti to quickly enlist her upstairs neighbor’s oven for the task. In no time, the building’s stairwell is filled with the delightful aroma of baking. As the tables start to brim with an assortment of cakes and cookies, some trays are relocated to the floor.

There are some leftover poppy seeds and date paste. “Don’t throw out anything!” Shosh says, incorporating bits of this and that so nothing goes to waste. Soon, a new and improvised cake is prepared, distributed among three cake tins. “Of course it turned out delicious; there’s no other option,” she asserts. “We’ll share it at the hotel; everyone wants some.” 

When the host’s young son returns home from kindergarten, he’sastonished to find his house transformed into a cake and cookie factory — and thrilled when Shosh made a point to leave some of the delightful treats behind. The neighbor, who generously offered his oven to boost production, also receives a plate filled with cookies before Shosh heads back to the hotel, her bag brimming with freshly baked goods.