Kaab el Ghazal

Morocco's gazelle-horn pastries: slender crescents of fine pastry filled with orange-blossom almond paste

Origin: Fez and Marrakech, Morocco

From the journey of Almond.

Kaab el ghazal, the gazelle's horns (known in French as cornes de gazelle), are the queen of Moroccan pastries, slim crescents of the thinnest pastry wrapped around a fragrant paste of ground almond perfumed with orange-blossom water and cinnamon, then baked pale and curved into the horn shape that gives them their name. They belong to the grandest occasions, the wedding and the engagement, the feast of Eid and the welcoming of an honoured guest, and they are the test of a Moroccan pastry cook, for the pastry must be rolled until it is almost translucent and the horns shaped with an even, graceful curve. The sweet descends from the shared almond confectionery of Al-Andalus and the Maghreb, the medieval marriage of ground almond, sugar, and flower water that the two shores of the strait made together and that Morocco has carried forward with particular refinement. The orange-blossom water is the signature of the Moroccan kitchen, distilled from the bitter-orange groves of the country and lending the almond paste a haunting floral perfume; a little cinnamon and sometimes a breath of mastic complete it. The finished horns are sometimes left plain and dusted with icing sugar, sometimes brushed with orange-blossom syrup. Served in pyramids on the best trays alongside mint tea, kaab el ghazal are at once a confection and an act of hospitality, the almond raised to its highest Moroccan art.

Ingredients

Almond filling

  • 300 g blanched almonds, finely ground
  • 150 g icing sugar
  • 3 tbsp orange-blossom water
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 30 g unsalted butter, softened

Pastry

  • 250 g plain flour
  • 30 g unsalted butter, melted
  • 1 tbsp orange-blossom water
  • 0.25 tsp salt
  • 100 ml warm water, approximately

To finish

  • icing sugar, to dust

Method

  1. Make the filling: work the ground almonds, icing sugar, cinnamon, softened butter, and orange-blossom water together to a smooth, firm paste. Roll into thin sausages about the thickness of a finger and 6cm long, tapered at each end. Set aside.
  2. Make the pastry: mix the flour and salt, work in the melted butter and orange-blossom water, then add the warm water a little at a time until you have a smooth, elastic, supple dough. Knead well for 10 minutes, then cover and rest for 30 minutes.
  3. Roll the rested dough out as thinly as you possibly can on a lightly floured surface, until almost translucent. Cut into strips about 8cm wide.
  4. Lay a filling sausage along the strip near the lower edge, fold the pastry over it, and press firmly around the almond to seal, cutting around each with a pastry wheel to leave a narrow border. Curve each into a crescent.
  5. Set the horns on a lined tray and prick each two or three times with a needle to stop them bursting. Curve them into even crescents.
  6. Bake at 170°C (fan) for about 12 to 15 minutes, until set and only just barely coloured. They must stay pale.
  7. Cool, then dust generously with icing sugar.

Notes

Kaab el ghazal keep for up to two weeks in an airtight tin. For a glossier finish, brush the warm baked horns with orange-blossom syrup before dusting. A pinch of ground gum mastic worked into the almond paste gives the prized perfume of the finest Fassi pastry shops.

The Gastrographer

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