The Ghazal Recipes

THE GHAZAL

Steps:

• Fill a mixing glass with ice and one mint leaf per serving.
• Pour in the gin, lime juice and rosewater.
• Stir for 30 seconds, strain into a chilled coupe and float mint leaves on top.

CORNES DE GAZELLE (GAZELLE HORNS)

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Spread almonds over the baking sheet.
• Bake in the preheated oven until almonds are fragrant and roasted, 20 to 25 minutes.
• Prepare pastry dough while almonds are roasting. Combine flour, 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon butter, and salt in a bowl and rub together until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add egg, oil, and 1 1/2 tablespoons orange blossom water; knead everything into a smooth pastry dough. Add a little water, 1 teaspoon at a time, if dough is too dry. Shape pastry dough into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap, and set aside for 30 minutes.
• Remove almonds from oven and cool slightly, about 5 minutes. Place almonds in the bowl of a food processor; process until finely and evenly ground. Add 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar, cinnamon, egg, and 1 tablespoon orange blossom water in that order to the food processor, pulsing after each addition until mixture is evenly combined and resembles a paste.
• Remove small walnut-sized portions of filling with greased hands. Roll them into small logs with thin ends. Set aside.
• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Roll out half of the pastry dough on a lightly floured surface until very thin. Place one of the almond paste logs on the edge of the pastry, fold pastry over the filling, covering it completely, and seal the edges. Mold with your fingers into a crescent shape. Using a pastry cutter, cut around the crescent, and transfer to the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough and filling.
• Bake in the preheated oven until gazelle horns are lightly golden and baked through, about 20 minutes. They should not get too dark. Let cool slightly, about 3 minutes.
• Heat honey in a small saucepan over low-medium heat. Remove from heat and stir in 1 tablespoon orange blossom water. Dip gazelle horns into the honey and place on a serving plate. Sprinkle with crushed pistachios.

KAAB EL GHZAL

Steps:

• For the pastry, mix the flour with the eggs and the oil very thoroughly. Then bind with just enough orange juice to hold it together in a soft malleable dough. Wrap in plastic and leave to rest for 1/2 hour.
• Mix the filling ingredients to a soft paste.
• Divide the pastry dough into 4 for easier handling, then roll out into sheets as thinly as possible (about 1/8 inch) on a floured surface, with a floured rolling pin. Cut into 4-inch squares. Take a walnut-sized lump of almond paste and shape into a sausage about 4 1/2 inches long, fatter in the middle and tapering off towards the ends. Place it in the middle of a square, diagonally, on the bias, about 1/3 inch from the corners. Fold the dough over the filling (a wide-bladed knife helps to lift the dough) and roll up, then very gently curve into a crescent, turning the ends away from the point in the middle. Repeat with all the pastry squares and the rest of the paste.
• Arrange on oiled baking sheets and bake in a preheated 375°F oven for 30 minutes. The crescents should not turn brown, but only just begin to color. They will be soft. Do not try to move them until they are cool and firm.
• Dip in confectioners' sugar so that they are entirely covered.
• Some people cut the pastry into rounds, place a line of filling in the middle, and fold the pastry over the filling to make a half-moon shape. They pinch the edges together, trim some of the excess rounded edge, and curve the pastries slightly into a crescent.