Kleeja (Cardamom-Wheat Cookies)

I like to a keep a good biscuit around the house. I use the word biscuit in the British sense: not one of those puffy buttermilk biscuits in America but rather some cross between a cracker and a cookie, a digestive biscuit or a tea biscuit, call it a snack cookie if you must. They're good for nibbling as a 3:00 sweet fix, a 5:00 pick-me-up, after dinner as dessert, or a midnight snack. And if you tend towards hypo-glycemia, tucking one in your bag is essential.

My favorite biscuit to have around is a cardamom-wheat version, they're called kleeja and they're from Iraq. You can find similar biscuits all over the Middle East but I like to think that they are uniquely Iraqi. Northern Iraq is believed to be the first place wheat and barley were cultivated and planted as crops, and wheat continues to be a staple grain and a symbol of prosperity and fertility. Sheaves of wheat are hung from balconies in Baghdad and their image imprinted on the dinar. I like the slight coarseness of the wheat in these biscuits, and I love the liberal use of cardamom, so particularly Iraqi: Iraqis scent their coffee, rice pilafs, soups, cookies and breads all with heaping spoonfuls of cardamom.


Kleeja are quite popular in the Gulf where they are mass-produced and packaged to be sold all over the Middle East. That's where I first tasted them, but now I've discovered they are just as easy to make at home, and I do, quite often. I've served them with coffee, tea, or wine, sent them in care-packages, and people always love them. I know the recipe by heart, which is good, because people often ask me for it. I've put them here as well so friends don't have to read my recipes scribbled on the back of paper napkins. I think it's the cardamom that gives them that special air, and their satisfying crunch. I hope you'll think they're just as good to have around as I do.

As you can see, I've varied the size and thickness of these cookies, and my favorite version is that rolled 1/4" thick and cut with a biscuit cutter. Feel free to play around, but make sure not to roll them too thinly, as the thickness contributes to their charm.

Kleeja (Cardamom-Wheat Cookies)

3 cups whole wheat flour.
1/2 cup vegetable oil or 9 tbl melted butter
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cardamom
1 egg beaten with 2 tbl water, for glazing

1. Preaheat oven to 350 F. Grease 2 baking sheets or line with parchment. Combine sugar and milk in small pan, stir over heat without boiling until sugar dissolves, set aside to let cool.
2. Combine flour with baking powder, salt, cardamom in a bowl. Mix in the oil/butter until crumbly and well combined, then add egg, sugar and milk, mix well to form a dough. Set aside to rest for 15 minutes.
3. Roll out the dough with a floured rolling pin (you do not need to flour your work surface) to 1/4" thick. Cut out rounds with a biscuit cutter, rerolling until all the dough is used. Make a cross-hatch pattern on the cookies with a knife if desired. Transfer to baking sheets and brush the cookies with egg wash. Bake 15-20 minutes, or until just golden and firm on top (the bottoms will brown, but keep an eye that they don't burn). Cool on a rack, store in a cookie tin.

I should mention that the term "kleeja/kleicha" is used widely in the Middle East to refer to an array of things- it can also refer to a brioche roll stuffed with dates or other kinds of cookies.