Taste of Morocco: Ramadan Sweets with detailed recipe Part 3

Taste of Morocco: Ramadan Sweets with detailed recipe

Moroccan Almond Briouats

Briouats are really a staple of Moroccan cuisine. Sweet or salty this is a very popular dish because it’s relatively easy to make and once you make them, you can store or freeze bigger quantities, so when the time comes it’s enough to just take them out the freezer and fry them.  Almond briouats are very important elements of Ramadan cuisine and they are often served at every single Iftar. They are really sweet, copious and thanks to their almond and spice content, very rich in minerals. (check out my Moroccan Spices piece here if you want to learn more about the beneficial effects of Moroccan spices.

I do my best to make the recipe as short and easy to understand as possible

Ingredients for the pastry

4 sheets of filo pastry 80 g melted butter 2 tsp sesame seeds

Note: traditionally locals use or make the pastry called Warqa which is kind of the same what is used for making the baklava. I will later on post the traditional recipe, but that’s for very-very experienced and dedicated cooks, which most of us aren’t. Therefore it’s better to keep it at filo pastry which you can get in any supermarkets in your area.

Ingredients for the filling

250 g almonds 110 g caster sugar 30 g melted butter 20 ml orange water ½ tsp cinnamon powder

Ingredients for the syrup

250 ml or 1 cup of quality honey2 tsp orange water

•  Blend the almonds ( always blanched) until they become a pastry then mix it with the rest of the ingredients for the whole to form a mass you will work with.
• Lay out the filo pastry onto a lightly floured surface and proceed to cut out as many 8x 280 cm strips as you can ( standard size should get you 5 strips)
• Cover the strips with a slightly wet tea towel and leave them on for a while. This will make the pastry easy to form
• Brush each strips with melted butter then make a small ball of the filling and put it at one end of the strip.
• Fold the bottom left corner up then over to the right the same way. You do this until you reach the upper end and you should gain a triangular shape this way – remember it’s expertise so don’t worry if the first try won’t get you brilliant results. This amount should give you 20 briouats. Learn more about folding techniques with this photo tutorial by clicking here
• Place the ready triangles on a tray and brush them with more melted butter. Before baking you may sprinkle them with sesame seeds too.
• Bake the briouats in a pre-heated oven of 180 C / 380 F for around 20-25 mins. They should become golden and feel crispy.
• Make the honey syrup by warming up the honey and the orange water in a smaller pan until it becomes syrupy. Keep it warm and don’t let it boil.
• You will pour the syrup on the briouats as soon as you take them out of the oven and put them on a heatproof plate or bowl. After they soaked in honey for about 20 minutes place them on a tray to let them go from the excess honey.
• Briouats can be served after cooling down to room temperature
• If you keep them in the fridge in air-tight containers they will be good to consume for a week.

Hope you liked this recipe and please let me know if it did help you or motivate you to start making it. 

Bon Apétit!