Mahleb ✦

Mahleb

What it is

It is the kernel inside the stone of the St Lucie cherry, a small wild tree planted more often as rootstock for eating cherries than for any fruit of its own. Cracked and ground, it tastes of bitter almond and sour cherry at once, and it is what gives Greek tsoureki and Levantine ka’ak their particular smell.

In the kitchen

Buy whole kernels and grind at the last minute — the powder is oily and goes rancid within weeks. Around a teaspoon per kilo of flour, worked into the dough rather than scattered on top.

Goes with

T55 flour Egg Butter White sugar Orange blossom water Sesame Honey Almond

Same species

Bergeron apricot Almond Almond flour Almond oil Amardine Amarena cherry in syrup

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