Mhancha (almond pastry)

Mhancha, a traditional Moroccan pastry filled with almonds and perfumed with orange-blossom water, is the perfect way to finish off your Moroccan banquet.

Serves: 6-8
Prep. time: 25 min
Cooking time:25 min

Ingredients:

• 16 sheets filo pastry
• 1 egg yolk, lightly whisked with 1 tbsp cold water
• 80 g unsalted butter, melted
• 150 g honey, warmed
• icing sugar, ground cinnamon and white sesame seeds, to sprinkle

Almond filling:

• 500 g blanched almonds
• 150 g caster sugar
• 2 tbsp orange-blossom water (see Note)
• 150 g unsalted butter, softened
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon

Direction:

1. Preheat oven to 200°C. 
2. To make almond filling, place almonds and sugar in a food processor and blend to a paste, add orange-blossom water and process until combined.
3. Place butter and almond paste in a saucepan over medium heat and cook, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes or until slightly darker in colour. 
4. Remove from heat and cool completely. 
5. Add egg yolk and cinnamon and mix to a firm paste.
6. Shape almond filling into 8 x 33 cm-long, 3 cm-thick logs. 
7. Working with one sheet of pastry at a time, and keeping the others covered with a lightly dampened tea towel, brush lightly with egg yolk mixture and top with another sheet. 
8. Place 1 almond log in the centre and roll pastry around to enclose. 
9. Continue process with remaining pastry and logs.
10. Working with one log at a time, shape into a tight spiral on an oven tray, then continue with remaining logs, pressing ends together, to make one large spiral. B
11. rush evenly with melted butter and bake for 20 minutes or until golden. 
12. Brush with honey. 
13. Cool completely then dust with icing sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Cook's notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. 

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Fekkas (Anise-Flavored Melba Toast Rounds)

These little cookies must get their name from the “runner” chickens also called fekkas, for they are tough little things with a good taste. They are very popular for tea dunking, doubtless because they can stand the heat.

Working time: 40 minutes
Rising time: 1½ to 2 hours
Baking time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 package active dry yeast
• 3 to 3¼ cups pastry flour
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• Confectioners’ sugar
• ½ cup sweet butter, melted and cooled
• 1 scant tablespoon aniseed
• 1 scant tablespoon sesame seeds (toasted, optional)
• ¼ cup orange flower water

Direction:

1. The day before, soak the yeast in ¼ cup lukewarm water until bubbly.
2. Combine the flour, salt, 1¼ cups sugar, the bubbling yeast, cooled melted butter and spices in the large mixing bowl. Stir in the orange flower water and then enough lukewarm water to form a firm dough. 
3. Knead well until smooth, then turn out onto a board dusted with more confectioners’ sugar. 
4. Break into 4 portions. 
5. Roll each into a ball and cover.
6. Take one of the balls and shape the dough into a 1-inch-thick cylinder by rolling back and forth with some force. 
7. The dough will be sticky at first, but after some strong, firm rolling with palms down it will start to stretch as you slide your palms toward the ends to lengthen the mass. 
8. Stretch and roll the dough until you have a 10-to 12-inch cylinder of even thickness. 
9. Repeat with the remaining balls. 
10. Place on the baking sheets, cover with towels, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume. 
11. When doubled, prick each tube with a fork to deflate.
12. Preheat the oven to 375°.
13. Bake the tubes 20 minutes, or until barely golden. (They should not be cooked through.) 
14. Remove from the oven and let cool on racks overnight.
15. The following day, slice the cylinders crosswise into very thin cookies and arrange flat on ungreased baking sheets. 
16. Bake in a 350° oven until pale golden brown and dry, about 10 minutes. 
17. When cool, store in airtight tins.

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Ghoriba (Semolina Cookies)

Ghoriba cookies are based on semolina flour (hard wheat), which has its own marvelous taste and texture. These are lovely light cookies, sugar-dipped, the size of half-dollars.

Working time: 20 minutes
Baking time: 15 to 18 minutes
Makes: 3½ dozen cookies

Ingredients:

• Sweet butter
• ¼ cup salad oil
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 22/3 cups semolina flour
• 1 teaspoon double-acting baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Direction:

1.  Heat 1/4 cup of butter in the oil. When melted, remove from the heat and set aside.
2. Use an electric beater to beat the eggs and 12/3 cups of the confectioners’ sugar together until soft and fluffy. 
3. Add the butter-oil mixture and beat a few seconds longer. 
4. Using the spatula, fold in the semolina flour, baking powder, salt, and vanilla. 
5. Blend well.
6. Preheat the oven to 350°.
7. Prepare the baking sheets by smearing with dabs of sweet butter. 
8. Place the remaining 1/3 cup confectioners’ sugar in a flat dish. 
9. Form the cookies by pinching off walnut-sized balls of dough and rolling between your palms until a perfect sphere is formed. (Since the dough is very sticky, it’s a good idea to moisten your hands from time to time.) 
10. Flatten the sphere slightly, dip one side into powdered sugar, and arrange on a buttered baking sheet.
11. Bake on the middle shelf of the preheated oven for 15 to 18 minutes. 
12. When they are done, the cookies will have expanded and crisscross breaks will appear on their tops. 
13. Allow to cool and crisp before storing.

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Kaab el Ghozal (Gazelle Horns)

These cakes are sometimes called "gazelle horns" in English, but why that is remains a mystrey. In Arabic. kaab el ghozal mean "gazelle ankles". This recipee make 60 to 70 horns.

Makes: 60-70
Prep. Time: 20 min
Cooking Time:  10 min

Ingredients:
Almond paste

• 8 cups (1 kg) blanched and peeled almonds
• 2 cups ( 500 g) superfine sugar
• 2 tablespoons orange flower water
• 1 tablespoons melted butter

Dough

• 1 tablespoon melted butter
• 4½ cups (500 g) all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup + 2 teaspoons orange flower water

Direction:

1. Mix the almonds and the sugar, grind in a food mill or a food processor and reduce to a fine powder. 
2. Mix this powder with the orange flower water and melted butter. 
3. Separate the mixture into pieces the size of a walnut and roll into batons about 3x1 cm.
4. Set aside.
5. Mix all the ingredients for the dough together until firm. 
6. Roll the dough as thin as possible with a rolling pin. It should be almost transparent.
7. Place the baton of almonds paste on the dough in a line with even spaces beteen each baton.
8. Fold the dough over to cover all the pieces of almond paste.
9. Seal by pressing slightly and separate with a pastry cutter.
10. Bend each piece slightly to form a crescent.
11. Prick each biscuit with a pin to allow the stream to escape during baking.
12. Transfer to a baking sheet, brush with melted butter, then bake for approximately 10 minutes at  400 °F (200 °C). The horns should be barely golden.
13. You can serve them plain or dusted with confectioners' (icing) sugar. 

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Chebakia

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Khboz Bishemar (Marrakesh "Pizza" )

It may seem odd to stuff bread with fat and spices, but the idea is extremely ingenious: the fat runs out through holes pricked in the dough, becomes the medium in which the bread is fried, and leaves behind its flavor and an array of spices and herbs that make it taste strikingly like pizza crust.

Serves: 4
Working time: 40 min
Rising time: 45 min
Cooking time: 20 min

Ingredients:
1 package active dry yeast
¼ pound mutton or beef suet (about 1 cup, tightly packed)
3 tablespoons chopped parsley
½ cup finely chopped onion
¼ heaping teaspoon ground cumin
1 dried red chili pepper
1 heaping teaspoon paprika
2 cups unbleached flour
1 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons sweet butter, melted

Directions: 

1. Sprinkle the yeast over 1/4 cup lukewarm water. 
2. Stir to dissolve and let stand in a warm place for ¼ minutes, or until the yeast has become bubbly and doubled in volume. 
3. Meanwhile, make the filling. 
4. Chop or grind suet; pound the parsley, onion, and spices in a mortar or chop finely to a paste. 
5. Mix with the suet and set aside. 
6. Mix the flour with the salt and make a well in the center. 
7. Pour in the bubbling yeast and enough lukewarm water to form a ball of dough. (Add more water if the dough seems hard to handle.) 
8. Knead well until smooth and elastic, about 20 minutes. 
9. Separate the ball of dough into 4 equal parts. 
10. Lightly flour a board. Begin patting the first ball of dough down to a disc shape, stretching and flattening it to make a rectangle approximately 8 × 14 inches. 
11. Spread one-quarter of the filling in the center. 
12. Fold the right and then the left side of the dough over the filling. 
13. Press down on this “package” and begin flattening and stretching it (with the filling inside) until it is the same size (8 × 14 inches) as before. 
14. Repeat the folding, this time right side over center and left side under. 
15. Repeat with the remaining 3 balls of dough. 
16. Set aside, covered, in a warm place for 45 minutes. 
17. Heat the griddle. 
18. Prick the “packages” with a fork six or seven times on both sides. 
19. Place on the griddle, they will begin to fry in the fat released from their fillings. 
20. Fry the “packages” 10 minutes on each side, until crisp. 
21. Dot each package with a teaspoonful of melted butter before serving.

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Khobz (Wholemeal Flat Bread)

Moroccan bread is a main element which is served with most dishes. It is essential and delicious. This recipe is also called: koubz, khubz or home bread.

Makes 16
Prep. Time: 60 min
Cooking Time: 12 min

Ingredients:

• 2½ cups wholemeal flour
• 1 teaspoon easter sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1x 7g sachet yeast
• 1¼ cups tepid water
• ½ teaspoon ground weet paprika
• 1/3 cup corn meal
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. 
2.  Combine ½ cup flour, sugar, salt, yeast and water in bowl. 
3. Stand covered in a warm place until foaming. 
4. Add rest of flour, paprika and corn meal into bowl, add oil. 
5. Stir in yeast mixture. 
6. Mix to firm dough. 
7. Stand covered in a warm place 20 minutes. 
8. Divide into sixteen, roll into balls, flatted into rounds. 
9. Place a greased baking tray. 
10. Brush with egg, sprinkle with sesams seeds. 
11. Stand, covered until puffed. 
12. Bake 12 minitues.

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