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    Home / Dessert / Kaab el Ghazal

    Kaab el Ghazal

    Slender crescent cookies filled with orange-blossom almond paste, delicate, fragrant, and utterly refined.

    ⏱ 1 hrPrep time
    🔥 15 minCook time
    🍽 12Servings
    🏷 DessertCategory
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    Kaab el ghazal, meaning gazelle horns, are the most elegant cookies in the Moroccan pastry box. Thin crescents of barely sweet pastry wrap a filling of almonds scented with orange blossom water, baked until pale and delicate. They are served with mint tea at every celebration and are the first cookie to disappear from the tray.

    Crescent cookies with a perfumed almond heart

    The pastry is thin enough to see the filling through, and it shatters gently between your teeth before the soft almond paste takes over. Orange blossom water gives everything a floral perfume that feels like a garden in spring. They keep for weeks in a tin, if they last that long, and they taste even better the day after.

    Craving more? Explore all Moroccan Kitchen recipes.

    Thinking of a Moroccan dinner night? This dish fits the complete Moroccan dinner night menu.

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    Step by stepInstructions

    1. Make the filling: mix the almond flour, powdered sugar, 2 tbsp orange blossom water, 2 tbsp melted butter, and cinnamon into a smooth, firm paste.
    2. Make the dough: mix the all-purpose flour and salt, then rub in the 1/4 cup melted butter. Add the orange blossom water and enough warm water to form a soft, pliable dough. Knead briefly, cover, and rest 15 minutes.
    3. Pinch off walnut-size pieces of dough and roll each one into a very thin oval, about 6 inches long.
    4. Shape a small log of almond filling down the center of each oval, fold the dough over it, and pinch the edges to seal. Curve each cookie into a crescent.
    5. Bake at 350 degrees F for 12 to 15 minutes, until very lightly golden. They should stay pale.
    6. Cool completely and dust with powdered sugar.

    💡 Chef tips & storage

    Roll the dough as thin as you possibly can, thin pastry is the mark of a good gazelle horn. Do not let the cookies brown in the oven, they should stay pale and only just set.

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    Recipe details

    Prep1 hr
    Cook15 min
    Servings12
    CategoryDessert
    PublishedAugust 17, 2026
    Emily — the cook behind My Comfort Recipes

    Hi, I'm Emily 🧡

    Hi, I'm Emily — the cook behind My Comfort Recipes. Simple, tested comfort food for real weeknights, written down the way grandma would. Pull up a chair. More about me →

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