CORNES DE GAZELLE/KA‘B AL-GHAZAL
I love these almond-filled cookies. They are baked until just set but not colored so that they remain delicate, breaking as soon as you bite them and then melting in your mouth. I am unable to have a tray of these in front of me without making them disappear with alarming speed.
Even though every self-respecting Moroccan cook knows how to make cornes de gazelle (French for “gazelle’s horns”—a reference to the cookies’ hornlike crescent shape), they are often purchased from specialists, women who bake them to order for both home cooks and pastry shops. A modest pâtisserie in Marrakesh was where I found some that were among the best I have ever eaten. Those cornes de gazelle were so good that I returned every day to buy some to take to the café next door, to enjoy with my morning mint tea. The waiter disapproved, explaining that the pastries are normally offered at the end of fancy dinner parties known as diffa (from diyafa, meaning “hospitality” in Arabic), or served throughout the day alongside mint tea. They are not typically eaten for breakfast.
This recipe comes from the Marrakesh woman who made the ones I ate every morning, though I have not been able to roll out the dough as thinly as she did. Nonetheless, my cornes de gazelle are delicious and better than any you can buy in commercial North African pastry shops outside the Maghreb.
MAKES 40 COOKIES
almond filling
33/4 cups [500 g] blanched almonds
3/4 cup [150 g] superfine sugar
1/4 cup [60 ml] orange blossom water
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
6 to 8 small grains mastic (see page 55), crushed in a small mortar with a pestle to yield 1/2 tsp powdered mastic
pastry
11/2 cups [225 g] unbleached all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted, plus more for rolling out the pastry
61/2 Tbsp [100 ml] water
To make the filling: Put the almonds in a medium heatproof bowl. Pour in enough boiling water to cover and soak for 30 minutes. Drain the almonds and dry them well on a clean kitchen towel.
In a food processor, working in batches if necessary, process the almonds and superfine sugar to a very fine paste, about 2 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Transfer to a large bowl. Add the orange blossom water, butter, and mastic; mix with your hands until you have a homogeneous paste. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and set aside.
To make the pastry: Put the flour in a large, shallow mixing bowl and make a well in the center. Add the melted butter and slowly add the water (some cooks use orange blossom water, but that makes for very fragrant pastries) as you gradually stir the butter into the flour with your hand or a spatula. Knead the mixture in the bowl for 15 minutes, or until a smooth, malleable dough forms.
Divide the filling into 40 pieces, rolling each piece between the palms of your hands into a 2-in [5-cm] ball. Shape each ball into a cylinder about 4 in [10 cm] long, with tapering ends. Set aside.
Preheat the oven to 400°F [200°C]. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
Smear your pastry board or work surface, rolling pin, and hands with melted butter. Divide the dough in half and shape each half into a rectangle measuring about 4 by 8 in [10 by 20 cm]. Roll out one half, turning it over once or twice, into a very thin strip about 5 in [12.5 cm] wide and about 20 in [50 cm] long. Carefully stretch the dough with your hands to thin it out a little more and lengthen it to about 25 in [60 cm].
With the dough positioned perpendicular to the counter’s edge, place a piece of filling along a short end, about 1 in [2.5 cm] away from the edge. Fold the 1-in [2.5-cm] edge tightly over the filling and pinch the filling, bending it at the same time to form a crescent with a thin triangular body and pointed ends; it should be a little wider than the initial cylinder of filling and flat on the bottom. Press the edges of the dough together and cut using a fluted pastry wheel, following the shape of the crescent and keeping very close to the edge of the filling. The crescent should measure about 4 in [10 cm] wide by 11/4 in [3 cm] high. Prick it with a toothpick in several places on both sides and set on a prepared baking sheet. Form more cornes de gazelle in the same way using the rolled-out dough; you should have enough to make 20 crescents. Space them about 1 in [2.5 cm] apart on the baking sheet.
Bake until barely colored, 15 to 20 minutes. Let the pastries cool a little, and then carefully transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. While the first batch is baking, begin forming the second lot, and bake and cool them in the same way. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
