CAIRO - As Ramadan draws to a close, women and children gather in the family home to make kahk (Egyptian cookies), which are traditionally made to mark the three days of Eid el-Fitr, at the end of the holy fasting month. They fill a huge container with dough and everyone has a specific duty. "I like to knead the dough and cut it into small pieces, while my neighbour stuffs them with dates, nuts or malban [Turkish delight]. “We give our children the fun task of pressing the pieces of dough into circular shapes. The last step involves spreading the kahk on a rectangular tray that one of the children then takes to a nearby bakery for baking," says Omm Youssef, a 45-year-old housewife. Every year, normally on the final day of Ramadan, Omm Youssef gets together with her next door neighbour and they spend the night making trays and trays of scrumptious cookies. It is a major social event, a time for friendly gossip. "This is a ritual. I do exactly what my mother and grandmother did before me. Making kahk is one of Egypt's most ancient traditions," she adds. Kahk is a heavy, sweet pastry made of flour, dairy/vegetable ghee (or butter or vegetable oil), eggs, milk and loads of sugar. A traditional Egyptian kahk is a plain disc-shaped tartlet covered with powdered sugar, but there are also other types of kahk stuffed with a number of different fillings, like pistachios, walnuts, almonds or malban. Kahk with puréed dates (or agwa) are more common in the Arab Gulf. "This year, I've baked the cookies early, five days before Eid. When I finished making them, I hid them from my children until the Eid," Omm Youssef explains. There's no Eid without kahk. It's the only thing about the Eid that hasn't changed for many generations. The new clothes people buy for the Eid come and go, while the eideya (the money parents give their children for Eid) stops when one reaches a specific age. But kahk have always been around. They were there when we were children and they're still there. "My mom never buys kahk from the bakery. If they're not home-made, we're not allowed to eat them," says Radwa Ahmed, Omm Youssef's 15-year-old-daughter. Kahk are thought to have originated in Ancient Egypt during the 18th Dynasty (1540-1307 BC). The precursors of modern-day kahk were made of honey and flour, pressed into discs, decorated with the imprint of the sun's rays, and then baked. The iconic pasty is said to have been re-introduced in its contemporary form during Egypt's Toulounid period in the 9th century AD. The association between kahk and the Eid el-Fitr holiday is attributed to Fatimid Caliph Al-Muezz li-Deen Illah, who commemorated the end of the fasting month by distributing kahk among his subjects in the newly founded City of Cairo in 969 AD. Nowadays, if a housewife hasn't got time to bake kahk, she can always buy them from her local confectioner's. "As a working woman, I buy kahk every year, because I don't have time to make them. They are a traditional item that should be there during Eid," says 28-year-old Norhan Ragab, who recently got married.
