In a large bowl, add together the flour, ghee, mahlab and sweetened condensed milk. Use your hands to knead the mixture until everything is blended together. The mixture would first crumble, continue kneading until you have a smooth malleable dough. . Transfer to a clean bowl, cover with plastic wrap and keep in the freezer for about 20 minutes until cold but not frozen.

In the meantime, prepare the filling: Pull open the dates and and release the pits by hand.

Transfer the dates to a food processor and add the ghee, orange blossom water and mastic gum, blend to get a paste. If your food processor is having a hard time making the chunks smaller and smooth, add a couple of tablespoons of water into the mix.

Roll the date into small balls roughly the size of an apricot, if the dates are sticking to your hands rub your hands with a little oil. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 220°C/ 430 °F. Position the baking rack in the middle of the oven.

Remove the dough from the freezer and knead well. The dough should pliable and easy to work with! If it is too dry, it will crack while baking, to avoid that add just a bit of sweetened condensed milk until the dough is moist enough to be easily shaped. If the cookie dough is too sticky to work with, add just a bit of flour until you reach the desired consistency. Divide it into equal balls, roughly the size of an apricot.

Make a hole in the center of each ball, with your finger fill the hole with a date ball. Seal the hole patching the dough together and roll it into a ball.

Transfer each stuffed ball into the mold, pressing it lightly in to level it up with the mold. A simple trick to avoid sticking the dough, is to sprinkle the mold with a pinch of fine semolina (farina). It works like magic!

Gently tap the mold on a countertop, converting it and the maamoul will come out.

Place it on the cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, repeat with the remaining dough and date, no need to keep a space between one maamoul and another, with the absence of leavening, these cookies will not rise nor spread.

Bake about 15-20 minutes to a golden color. The bottom-side of the maamoul should be slightly browned, but not burnt, so keep an eye on your maamoul while baking. Remove from the oven and brush the top of each maamoul with some ghee, optional, but recommended!