Here is a Moroccan recipe from the Agadir region. It is a little marvel of simplicity and taste. It is a smooth paste with almonds crushed with argan oil and…]]>
Here is a Moroccan recipe from the Agadir region. It is a little marvel of simplicity and taste. It is a smooth paste with almonds crushed with argan oil and slightly sweetened with honey. It is traditionally done with a stone that grinds the almonds very finely. With a blender, you get almost the same texture. It will not be as fine (stone grinding gives an incomparable amlou) but the result is absolutely delicious. A little bit of amlou in the morning on bread and you can keep going until lunch. The argan oil gives a velvety softness in the mouth and the touch of honey is there to sweeten the whole.
For 550g of amlou:
- 350g of almonds
- 120g (130ml) argan oil
- 80g of honey (or more according to your taste)
Put the almonds to roast in the oven at 190°C. Place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Grill for 15 to 20 minutes, keeping an eye on them. I like them roasted, but you can roast them to your liking.
Here is the argan oil and honey.
I bought these two products at Apia in Rabat at 44, rue de l’Oukaïmeden. A great organic store with a wide selection of honey and oils. It is necessary to take the argan oil food and not to make a mistake with that reserved for the cosmetic care.
I also took eucalyptus honey, one of the cheaper ones, as it is quite suitable for making amlou.
Once the almonds are roasted, let them cool to room temperature. Then place them in the bowl of your blender. Normally this is done with a stone, but at home it is not always very practical!
Start grinding them and then add the oil.
Continue grinding, adding oil as you go.
Very quickly, the amlou forms and becomes almost liquid.
Then add the honey. You can add more or less. In general, I prefer amlou not too sweet.
A last blow of the blender and it’s ready ! You can pour it into a nice dish to serve or store it in a jam jar. If after several days the oil rises, you will just have to mix to find a homogeneous amlou.
To be served on fresh bread…
The last time I went to Morocco, two months ago, my good friend Touria made me taste these small macaroons filled with gazelle horn, bought in a famous pastry shop in Rabat, for a future cloning… I found this recipe particularly original and you can really taste that distinct taste of the delicious gazelle horns. So I went to my kitchen and looked for a simple way to reproduce this recipe. With almond, cinnamon, a bit of orange blossom, we quickly find this famous taste, and by simply adding butter for a good hold, the macaroons are perfect! Big success guaranteed with your guests with these delicately flavored macaroons!
For Moroccan gazelle horns it’s HERE!
The macaroons “horns of gazelles”:
-A basic recipe for macaroons (recipe in pictures HERE)
-1/4 teaspoon cinnamon powder
Trim “horns of gazelles”:
-175g almond powder
-90g of sugar
-3 tablespoons of orange blossom water
-1/4 teaspoon cinnamon powder
-180g of soft butter
Instructions:
Start by making the plain macaron dough as explained in my basic recipe HERE. The only difference is that you need to add 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon to the almond powder/icing sugar mixture.
Then proceed as I explain.
Shape your macaroons with a pastry bag fitted with an 8mm nozzle. Then sprinkle half of the macaroon batches with cinnamon powder.
The other half without cinnamon will be used for the bottom of the macaroon.
Bake the macaroons and let them cool on the still hot baking sheet.
Then prepare the “gazelle horns” filling:
Put the sugar, the quarter teaspoon of cinnamon, the almond powder and the orange blossom water in a container.
Mix well to obtain a homogeneous and not too wet paste.
Finally add the soft butter and mix well.
Put the filling in a piping bag and fill the macaroons without cinnamon. Stick two to two then with a cinnamon macaroon. Put in an airtight box in the fridge for one night before tasting!
It’s ready!
Macarons "Cornes de Gazelles"
La dernière fois que je suis allé au Maroc, il y a deux mois, ma bonne amie Touria m’a fait goûter ces petits macarons fourrés à la corne de gazelle, achetés dans une pâtisserie réputée de Rabat, en vue d’un futur clonage… J’ai trouvé cette recette particulièrement originale et l’on sent vraiment ce goût très distinct des délicieuses cornes de gazelles. Je me suis donc rendu dans ma cuisine où j’ai cherché un moyen simple de reproduire cette recette. Avec de l’amande, de la cannelle, un peu de fleur d’oranger on retrouve vite ce fameux goût, et en ajoutant simplement du beurre pour la bonne tenue, les macarons sont parfaits ! Gros succès assuré auprès de vos invités avec ces macarons aux parfums délicats !Pour les cornes de gazelles marocaines c’est par ICI !!
Ingredients
- une recette de base de macarons (recette en images ICI)
- 1/4 c. à café cannelle en poudre
Garniture « cornes de gazelles » :
- 175 g poudre d’amandes
- 90 g sucre
- 3 c. à soupe eau de fleur d’oranger
- 1/4 c. à café cannelle en poudre
- 180 g beurre doux mou
Instructions
- Commencez par préparer la pâte à macarons nature comme expliqué dans ma recette de base ICI. La seule différence est qu’il faut ajouter 1/4 de cuillerée à café de cannelle dans le mélange poudre d’amandes/sucre glace.
- Procédez ensuite comme je vous l’explique.
- Formez vos macarons avec une poche munie d’une douille de 8mm. Saupoudrez ensuite la moitié des fournées de macarons de cannelle en poudre.
- L’autre moitié sans cannelle servira pour le dessous du macaron.
- Cuisez les macarons et laissez-les refroidir sur la plaque encore chaude du four.
- Préparez ensuite la garniture « cornes de gazelles »: Mettez le sucre, le quart de cuillerée à café de cannelle, la poudre d’amandes et l’eau de fleur d’oranger dans un récipient.
- Mélangez bien pour obtenir une pâte homogène et pas trop humide.
- Ajoutez enfin le beurre mou puis mélangez bien.
- Mettez la garniture en poche à douille puis remplissez les macarons sans cannelle. Collez deux à deux ensuite avec un macaron cannelle. Mettez en boite hermétique au frais pour une nuit avant de déguster !
- C’est prêt !!
Nutrition
Calories: 2628kcalCarbohydrates: 128gProtein: 39gFat: 233gSaturated Fat: 99gPolyunsaturated Fat: 5gMonounsaturated Fat: 38gTrans Fat: 6gCholesterol: 387mgSodium: 1158mgPotassium: 49mgFiber: 19gSugar: 96gVitamin A: 4501IUVitamin C: 0.04mgCalcium: 422mgIron: 7mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
I had already presented you a recipe of gazelle horns. But I especially wanted to see and learn the technique of Moroccan gazelle horns, with their paper-thin dough, a little crunchy to reveal the almond, cinnamon and orange blossom heart so tender. It is in Morocco, on the spot that I went to meet Touria, Lalla Myriam and her mother, Lalla Fatima, true grandmother as we love them: holders of the secrets of the kitchen of their country. I had been looking to go to Morocco to cook for years. Patience was rewarded as it far exceeded my expectations…! You will quickly discover all the recipes we have made there: pastilla, harira, crepes mille trous, lemon chicken, mkharka, Berber couscous…
It is with great joy that I share with you, with the complicity of Touria, Lalla Fatima and Lalla Myriam, this first recipe: gazelle horns. This recipe is absolutely perfect and will be tasted, as it should, with a mint tea…
I give you here the recipe as Lalla Fatima learned it from her grandmother, who herself had learned it from her grandmother etc… I was told that it was important to use sugar cubes rather than powdered sugar. But above all (and this I saw was important), that you had to grind the almonds yourself. The fact of plunging them in boiling water to peel them, gives them a softness that we never find… Afterwards, for the sake of convenience, you may prefer to use almond powder and powdered sugar. But if you want the perfection of these little gazelle horns (which are called “sabots de gazelles” in Arabic…), you have all the elements in the recipe below!
Recipe for about fifty small gazelle horns:
Dough:
-300g of flour type 45
-150g of water (more or less)
-1 knob of soft butter
-2 teaspoons of orange blossom
-1 pinch of salt
Prank call:
-500g of peeled almonds
-375g of sugar cubes
-1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
-1 to 2 tablespoons of orange blossom water
-2 good tablespoons of melted butter
-some gum arabic crystals (6-7)
Oil for spreading
Start by preparing the dough.
Put the flour in the bowl of a food processor with the orange blossom and salt.
It is best to add water sparingly and knead with your hands at first, as you need to “feel” the dough. Once the flour has “drunk” enough water and you are sure of the consistency, you can knead with the robot (or by hand…).
The problem with adding water without first kneading the dough yourself is that you risk adding too much water…
Add a knob of soft butter halfway through the kneading process.
Knead for about 10-15 minutes by hand or in a food processor with the dough hook.
Then divide the dough into 90g pieces (roughly!) and place them in an oiled dish. The dough pieces themselves must also be oiled. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand for at least one hour in a cool place.
Prepare the stuffing:
Peel the almonds by plunging them into boiling water for 5 minutes. It is then enough to peel them. It goes pretty fast actually!
Put the dried almonds, with the sugar cubes, broken in a mortar.
Put everything in a meat grinder.
The stuffing must be passed through a second time to obtain a nice dough.
Add cinnamon and melted butter.
Mix well by hand, then add the orange blossom water .
Here is the gum arabic. On the picture, there are too many of them! Just take some crystals. Basically, this is a good pinch.
Grind the gum arabic into powder in a mortar.
Lalla Fatima recommended me to make small horns of gazelles, because when they are too big, people do not finish them… I don’t know, but big or small, I always finish my gazelle horns.
It is better to weigh the pellets to make sure you always have the same ones. Here, the dumplings weigh exactly 17g… It’s up to you to see which size fits best.
Then you just have to roll the dumplings between the palms of both hands soaked in orange blossom water, to obtain these small oblong dumplings.
Take a ball of dough that has been resting and oil the work surface (a marble or better: a wooden board, especially cedar!). Also oil the ball a little.
Roll out the dough with a rolling pin fairly thinly into a rectangle. Finish by hand… Let me explain: you just have to take the edges of the dough and pull it slightly outwards to make it even thinner. The final thickness of the dough is clearly visible on the picture.
Then place two or three stuffing rolls lengthwise on the dough.
Fold the dough over the sausages and press the filling into the base of the dough so that it is pre-sealed.
With a serrated wheel, cut the horns to separate them from each other.
Take a horn and pull it up with a sharp blow to separate it from the rest of the dough. Then flatten the horn between the fingers to give it its final shape. Using the rolling pin, cut off any excess dough that may appear.
Do the same with all other horns. We put three sausages on the dough, but there is still plenty of dough, so we can continue to make horns with the rest of the rolled out dough. Simply level the dough with the rolling pin and proceed as explained above.
Place gazelle horns on an oiled or parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
Then let it “crust” or dry for… 24 hours! This is a very important step to obtain gazelle horns with a thin crispy layer.
On the day of cooking: pierce with a needle three small holes on the top of the horns, this will avoid the formation of an air bubble that would burst in the oven!
Bake for 15-20 minutes at 160°C. You have to adapt according to your oven. The horns must be blond but not too colored.
The horns are divine while still warm with a hot mint tea.
We can see here the thickness of the dough: thin as a hair… A guarantee of success for this little wonder!
Here’s a recipe for Gazelle Horns! It will not be the only one, as there are several kinds. There are even finer ones, but they are Moroccan. I will be sure to go to the site to look for these other versions. I will also soon publish the recipe for “Algerian gazelle horns” which are coated with powdered sugar. This recipe was previewed in the February newsletter and was scheduled to be released on August 1st. It’s done!
Recipe for “Cornes de Gazelles”:
Dough:
-500g of flour
-200g of butter
-orange blossom water
Prank call:
-750g of almond powder
-200g of sugar
-2 teaspoons of liquid vanilla
-2 teaspoons of cinnamon powder
-orange blossom water
-powdered sugar, cinnamon
-750g of almond powder
-200g of sugar
-2 teaspoons of liquid vanilla
-2 teaspoons of cinnamon powder
-orange blossom water
-powdered sugar, cinnamon
Start by preparing the dough. Put the butter and flour in the bowl of a blender fitted with the “k”, or simply in a large bowl if you don’t have one.
Start mixing to sand completely. Add little by little flower water orange tree. You have to go slowly to see how well the flour absorbs.
Mix. The dough should be fairly soft but not sticky.
Place the dough ball in a cool place in cling film for 30 minutes if the butter was cold, otherwise one hour.
Prepare the stuffing. Put the almond powder in a kitchenaid or kenwood food processor or on a table.
Add the sugar, mix well, then the cinnamon. Mix again.
Make a well in the center and pour in a little orange blossom water and add the liquid vanilla.
Start kneading, adding the orange blossom water little by little (very gently!). When the dough can clump together and form a ball, it’s done!
If you don’t put enough orange blossom water, the filling will make your fingers shiny (because of the fatty almonds), so you need to add a little more orange blossom water until the dough sticks a little bit and your fingers are more matte.
Preheat the oven to 190°C.
Roll out the dough quite thinly , to a thickness of 2 mm.
With a 9.5cm circle cutter, cut circles in the dough.
Place a dough ball in the center of each circle. The pudding is almost as big as the circle itself.
Take a circle of dough containing the sausage and close the top edges.
And give a crescent shape.
Proceed in the same way for all the dough circles.
With a serrated roulette wheel, cut in the shape of the crescent of stuffing.
Then remove the excess dough.
Bake for 15-20 minutes at 190°C. Once out of the oven, sprinkle the gazelle horns with powdered sugar and add a little powdered cinnamon to the center. Let cool and enjoy with a mint tea!
