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Morocco: Pastries

9 questions · Food & Drink

Sweets from Morocco: recognise cornes de gazelle, chebakia, ghriba, sellou, baghrir, makroud, fekkas, meskouta and sfenj. Good to know: In French cornes de gazelle means ‘gazelle horns’, while the Arabic kaab el ghazal means ‘gazelle heels’. The flower-shaped chebakia belongs to the fasting month of Ramadan, ghriba is known by its cracked surface, and sellou is not baked but served heaped into a cone. The many holes of baghrir soak up honey and butter, makroud is common across North Africa, and fekkas are often dipped in tea. Meskouta is the everyday cake of Moroccan kitchens, and sfenj is eaten warm with sugar or honey at breakfast. Moroccan sweets revolve around almonds, honey and orange blossom water, and many are made to go with tea: on a visit a plate of pastries almost always sits next to the pot of mint tea. Some belong to a particular occasion, above all the evenings of Ramadan, when chebakia and sellou are served alongside harira soup. In the end it is less about memorising than about recognising.

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5 of 9 questions with answers

Which pastry is this?

Pastry

Foto: Saïd IDRI · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

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Cornes de gazelle

A crescent-shaped pastry with almond filling.

💡 Did you know? The French name means ‘gazelle horns’; in Arabic they are kaab el ghazal, ‘gazelle heels’.

Pastry

Foto: Indif · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

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Chebakia

A flower-shaped pastry, fried and coated in honey and sesame.

💡 Did you know? It belongs to the fasting month of Ramadan.

Pastry

Foto: Waran18 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

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Ghriba

A crumbly round cookie, often of almond or coconut.

💡 Did you know? The cracked surface is typical.

Pastry

Foto: DocteurCosmos · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

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Sellou

A nourishing mix of roasted flour, almonds and honey.

💡 Did you know? It is not baked but served heaped into a cone.

Pastry

Foto: Tamorlan · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

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Baghrir

A pancake with a thousand tiny holes.

💡 Did you know? The holes soak up honey and butter.

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