Close-up of a spoonful of rich, creamy dessert with a piece of cake in the background.
In Egypt, making kahk (cookies) is a custom as old as the pharaohs. Today, the shortbread-like cookies, imprinted with a geometric pattern, are made with a variety of stuffings – dates, pistachios, walnuts – or spiced with cinnamon, cloves and ginger, and sometimes also fennel seeds, anise seeds and mahlab (ground sour cherry kernels). Coptic Christians often bring a box of kahk as a gift when visiting friends and family at Christmas.