Source: Laura Cane, by way of her friend, Ahlass from the Druze village of Daliyat-al-Karmel

Ingredients: Dough 1 kg. flour 400 g. butter 1 kg. grated yellow cheese 2 packages (80 g.) baking powder 2 packages (80 g. vanilla sugar 2-3 cups water Filling 1 can chopped green olives without pits 1 can mushrooms Coating 0.5 kg. white sesame seeds 2 egg whites

Preparation:

1. Combine dough ingredients with your hands to form a soft dough, let sit a bit.
2. Soak mushrooms & olives in water to remove some of the salt.
3. Put sesame seeds on a big plate
4. Shape dough into little balls, stuffing ~tsp. full of filling inside each with your thumb. Balls will expand when baked, so make them ~ size of a plump plumb.
5. Roll ball in your hand to produce nice ball shape.
6. Dip ball in egg white to coat it.
7. Roll egg-white covered ball in sesame.
8. Bake at ~350 degrees F for about 10 minutes, until golden.

To freeze unbaked balls, wrap in plastic or separate between sheets of wax paper in a plastic container. Frozen balls can be placed directly in oven to bake without defrosting. You could substitute mozzarella for the "yellow cheese" commonly used in Israel. The name is of course from the Arabic p--> b pronunciation of "pizza". Given the lack of tomato sauce plus the lovely alliteration, I chose to call them "bizza balls" as their creator did.

Comment: The cheese in the dough melts and pulls apart like pizza cheese, soft and dreamy. The sesame provides a gentle crunch on the outside, and the mushrooms and olives provide interest inside. These are far, far yummier than the similar, smaller, harder creatures I've had at parties made from frozen philo dough with a whole olive shoved inside. They're only a bit more effort to prepare, using simple ingredients. Make a batch to freeze, ready to pop in the oven for unexpected special guests.

Section: Appetizers