Klija

Klija is a popular type of cookie stuffed with dates or date paste and is very well known in Qassim Province, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It is one of the ancient sweets with a history of around one hundred years. Qassim is thought of as the largest producer of Klija sweets in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), as it is home to many palm plantations. Moreover, due to the diversity of date crops in the province, popular dishes differ from one another depending on the type of dates used.

Klija is a dry dessert that can be stored for relatively long periods, which allows it to be exported locally and internationally. The cookie can be prepared with diverse fillings according to taste and preference. Some of its fillings are made of nuts, dried coconuts, or cardamom, and the browning intensity at the top of the cookie varies from one type to another.

Although many types of date desserts are prepared in Qassim Province, such as Hanini, Mahala, and Qishd, Kleicha is the most popular dessert in the province with its traditional filling, which is usually characterized by two flavors overpowered by sugar, cinnamon, and black lime.

Klija is prepared in two stages. The first one entails preparing the dough, letting it sit, and leaving it under a piece of cloth for twenty to thirty minutes. Its dough mixture consists of equal amounts of whole-wheat flour, white flour, oil, milk, and ghee. Then, the dough is divided into equal disk-like pieces to be filled with date paste or other fillings. The last step of this stage is to place the pieces on a metal grid to decorate their surface before baking them.

Every year, various Klija festivals are held in al-Qassim. The Klija Festival, at its fourteenth edition, which was held in February 2023 in Dates City, Buraydah, was attended by an exceptionally large number of people with over thirty thousand daily visitors from various segments of society. Klija is part of the hospitality culture in most of the popular food annual festivals in Qassim Province, such as Janadriyah National Festival and al-Hanini Festival in Unaizah Governorate. Family members participating in the festivals demonstrate their skills in preparing and serving Klija using various methods that reflect each family's culture.