Kaak Warka
Tunisian Almond Pastries
Kaak Warka is the "it girl" pastry of Tunisia. Though I think it is a bit of an acquired taste. Kaak Warka are not as sweet and you'd think, and especially for an American palette can seem muted. They are also flavored with florals, which I LOVE.
Truthfully, Kaak Warka should be pure white, but that requires a special flour or food coloring. Neither of which I feel like make a difference in my enjoyment of the pastry.
Kaak Warka Ingredients
​​​For the outside dough
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1 stick (1/2 cup) of clarified butter​​
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2 cups of flour
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*I made two variations of this dough. One with plain all purpose flour, and one with a flour made from red wheat. The red wheat was an accident, but made slightly darker Kaak Warka which I flavored differently.
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For the filling​
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1 1/2 cups of almond flour
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1/2 cup powdered sugar
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2-3 tbs floral water (rose, geranium, orange blossom)​​
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*I made a variation with rose water and one with orange blossom with cardamom
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Method
Clarify your butter by melting it and skimming all the milk solids off the top. Make sure to leave any milk solids that have also sunk to the bottom in the pan.
Sift your 2 cups of flour into a mixing bowl, pour the clarified butter into the flour and started to bring it together with your hands. Add a little bit of water at a time, mixing until you get a sticky dough. (About half a cup, no more.)
Turn the dough out onto a surface or put in a stand mixer and work it until it is soft, pliable, and no longer sticky to the touch. Let it rest 2 hours in the refrigerator.
Prepare the filling by mixing the almond flour and powdered sugar together. Once combined add your floral water create a paste.
Shape your almond paste into 12 equal sausages 3-4 inches long. Keep them covered and don't let them dry out.
Start rolling out your dough on a smooth surface. Roll it quite thin if you can (1mm) and cut it into rectangles that are about 4x2 inches. Honestly I eyeball this hard, I don't have the patience to measure lol. You just need it to be longer than your sausage shaped filling, and be able to roll it closed.
Place your sausage in your dough and wrap it up. Trim any excess and form it into a doughnut shape. I pinch the dough together at the ends and then rub it down using a little extra butter or floral water. This is tedious work.
While rolling preheat your oven to 350. When everything is rolled together bake for half an hour and enjoy! Decorate as you see fit.
Notes:
When I first made this I used an "all purpose flour" from my co-op that I didn't realize was milled with what was described as "hearty red wheat". It looked white, but when I added butter and water to make the Kaak Warka it got pretty brown! Haha! Not cute. So I decided to make two variations and use it as a natural food coloring to tell them apart.
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I kind of prefer these without the food coloring, though I do wonder if that adds a different texture to the dough. Mine weren't as crumbly as the pre-made ones I've eaten. You are supposed to use a Kaak Warka dough for this... which from what I can deduce either already has the food coloring added or contains a special enzyme. Using normal flour makes a heartier Kaak Warka which I think goes great with tea.