Today for the 13th day we travel to Morocco, officially The Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in North Africa. It is one of the three countries to have both Atlantic and Mediterranean coastlines. I have tried some recipes from Moroccan cuisine. After an elaborate preparation, I wanted to make a simple cookie today. The rustic looking almond cookies are so easy to make and very delicious to eat. Today is yet another great day for me. At Sai Bakes, we have started making some north Indian gravies which will be sold at a shop near my house. So for the past two days,the preparations for that was also going on. I usually cook for three and if I have guests, then it would be an additional 2-3 members. But making a huge batch of paneer butter masala was something new. So for the whole of evening, I was doing some very hard work. Though I am feeling so tired at the end of the day, I hope this gives me the satisfaction I need.
My day started at 4am today. The very first thing I did at once I woke up was to make some blanched almonds for these cookies. This cookie needs both almond flour and sliced almonds. The flour gives a nice crumbly texture while the sliced almonds give a crunch to the cookies. The cookies are dusted withicing sugar. But hubby dear has started hating the dusted cookies as I am flooding our house with that type of cookies for the past two weeks. So I made it plain. I removed the cookies when slightly brown for the first batch and those cookies were soft and crumbly. The second batch, I left them an extra five minutes to brown nicely and the cookies were so crispy. I liked both the types. If you are a fan of soft cookies then remove them when the base is golden, but if you prefer crispy cookies then wait until the cookies’ top changes to golden colour.
Recipe Source: Indian Simmer
Makes 20 Cookies
Ingredients:
Ghee/ Butter-3 1/2 tbs
Oil-3 tbs
Flour/ Maida-1 cup
Almond Meal/ Almond Flour-1/2 cup
Icing Sugar-5 tbs
Zest of one orange ( I used two small candied ground orange peels)
Rose Essence-1/2 tsp
Water-1 tbs
Cardamom Powder-1/2 tsp
Chopped Almonds-1/3 cup
Procedure:
In a bowl mix together butter, oil, sugar and orange zest.
Add the almond meal and mix well.
Add flour, cardamom powder and mix well.
Add the chopped almonds and mix.
Add the rose essence and water and knead to make a crumbly dough.
Cover and set aside for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 175°C.
Take a small portion of the dough and roll it into a ball.
Slightly flatten it and there will be cracks on the edges. It is fine.
Arrange the cookies on a greased tray 1″ apart.
Bake for 10-15 minutes.
Cool on wire rack and store in airtight jar.
Here are the recipes I tried from Moroccan Cuisine:

Ghoriba/ Moroccan Almond Cookies
Ingredients
Ingredients
- Ghee/ Butter-3 1/2 tbs
- Oil-3 tbs
- Flour/ Maida-1 cup
- Almond Meal/ Almond Flour-1/2 cup
- Icing Sugar-5 tbs
- Zest of one orange I used two small candied ground orange peels
- Rose Essence-1/2 tsp
- Water-1 tbs
- Cardamom Powder-1/2 tsp
- Chopped Almonds-1/3 cup
Instructions
Procedure
- In a bowl mix together butter, oil, sugar and orange zest.
- Add the almond meal and mix well.
- Add flour, cardamom powder and mix well.
- Add the chopped almonds and mix.
- Add the rose essence and water and knead to make a crumbly dough.
- Cover and set aside for 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 175°C.
- Take a small portion of the dough and roll it into a ball.
- Slightly flatten it and there will be cracks on the edges. It is fine.
- Arrange the cookies on a greased tray 1" apart.
- Bake for 10-15 minutes.
- Cool on wire rack and store in airtight jar.
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simply amazing recipe, loved this cookie as well
Gayathri, I am sure that those cookies are yummy. I wanted to congratulate on your endeavor earlier but somehow forgot. Loved all your creations at your Sai Bakes link. did you attend cake decorating classes?
No Suma, never attended classes. Learnt it through trial and error..
They look similar to naankhatai. Nice one
Very flavorful cookies…..love them
Ghoriba looks absolutely irresistible, i can munch some rite now.. Ghoriba is in my list since a long, have to bake some soon.
Good luck with your new venture! Wish you good luck and hope you get satisfaction with what you are doing. Cookies turned out good.
Almond cookies sound so exotic and delicious. They look perfect.
Good luck with the curry business.
Ghoriba sure looks fantastic and a melt in mouth kind of a cookie 🙂 I would love to much them all !! Love the addition of orange zest and rose essence for flavor !!
wud love to have one of those, straight away !
Congratulations and best wishes for your new venture..I know it must be so much hard work!..and waking up so early to make these cookies is so commendable!..the cookies have turned out so well Gayathri..
Those cookies looks surely addiictive. Very nicely baked..
The cookie has wonderful flavors and I would like to make these soon…life is not easy with so much of work load, TC Gayathri
With the zest in there I am sure the cookies are flavorful and addictive!
Wonderful flavours….
although I’ve never made these I have had them from friends before and are very delicious – yours look fabulous
Tempting & flavorful cookies..
Gayathri, how do yoy get the energy to do so much?? All the best with the new line at Sai. Btw these cookies look beautiful. i make similar almond cookies, but that uses wheat and oil.
Congrats and best wishes for the new venture Gayathri. The cookies look so good and I can imagine the taste!
Gayatri Congrats on the new venture. I know I am late but better late than never. The cookies are yum.
Good luck with your new venture Gayathri!! cookies look totally yum!!