Gazelle Horns

How to make gazelle horns (cornes de gazelle), these delicious oriental pastries filled with almond paste, flavored with orange blossom water and coated with powdered sugar, slivered almonds or melted chocolate.

This recipe is really easy to make at home and perfect for any occasion and especially for Muslim celebrations like on the Eid day.

this recipe

Gazelle horns also called kaab el ghazal gazelle horns or in French "cornes de gazelle" is a delicious traditional oriental pastry from the Maghreb (North Africa) and very popular in Morocco and Algeria.

These small crescent shape like moon-shaped cookies called gazelle horns or Tcharek are made with a sweet shortcrust pastry dough and filled with an orange blossom-flavored almond paste mixture.

Different recipes exist depending on the region, they can be covered with a thin layer of powdered sugar as in this recipe called Tcharek Msaker.

Or with only chopped almonds as in the version of Tcharek el ariane (without icing) or glazed with a layer of white or colored royal icing.

Like other oriental pastries, date and honey makrout cookies or baklava, these little crescent-shaped cookies are made for the Eid celebrations as well as for the end of the month of Ramadan and for special occasions such as weddings, circumcisions etc.

Ingredient and substitutions

Here is an overview of the ingredients needed to make these delicious small almond-filled croissants and possible substitutions, scroll down the page to see the quantities in the recipe card.

Shortcrust pastry

• Flour: Use white wheat all-purpose flour.
• Sugar: Optionally, you can add fine sugar like powdered sugar instead of granulated sugar.
• Salt: A pinch of salt.
• Butter: Use unsalted butter that has been cut into pieces and very cold.
• Orange blossom water: To flavor the recipe you can replace it with water.

Almond filling

• Almond flour: blanched or whole almonds, or finely ground almonds.
• Butter: You can use almond butter or softened butter as in my recipe, you can also replace it with peanut butter, melted chocolate or homemade spread.
• Vanilla and salt: Essential to bring out all the flavors.
• Orange blossom water: To wet the dough, you can replace the orange blossom water with rose water or simply water.
• Option: You can add a bit of ground cinnamon spice to flavour the filling.

⚠️ Find the ingredients and instructions to make this recipe in the recipe card at the bottom of this page.

How to make gazelle horns stuffed whit almond paste

1 - Almond filling

1. Place the almond flour, softened butter (in this recipe i use almond butter and brown sugar) and vanilla extract in a medium bowl.
2. Then add the orange blossom water and mix first with a tablespoon or a wooden spoon.
3. And finish mixing with your hands until you get a compact and homogeneous paste.
4. Set aside at room temperature while preparing the dough.

2 - Dough

1. Place the flour, sugar, salt and cold butter pieces in a large bowl or in your food processor.
2. Using your hands, crush the butter into the flour with your fingertips and mix until you obtain a sandy preparation.
3. Then add the orange blossom water and gather the preparation until it forms a dough.
4. Knead the dough on a work surface for about 5 minutes until you get a smooth and soft dough.

Tip: The dough should be soft, elastic and easy to handle and should not stick to your hands. If you don't use it immediately, you can cover it with plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge.

3 - Assembly

1. Roll out the dough with a rolling pin to a thickness of about 3 - 4 mm.
2. Use a pastry cutter or glass to cut out circles of dough about 7.5 - 8 cm in diameter.
3. Place a small almond paste logs in the center of the dough circles.

1. Close the dough on the almond logs and weld with the fingertips by pinching the dough firmly.
2. Then roll the dough with one hand on the work surface to make the seam disappear.
3. Thin the ends and roll them out to make them longer, then shape the dough into a crescent shape by bringing the ends forward.
4. Place on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper, leaving about 5 cm between each horn.

Tip: Be sure to close the dough tightly and place the visible seal on the bottom of the crescent to prevent it from opening during baking.

4 - Baking

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F / 180°C and place the prepared baking sheet with the gazelle horns in the oven for about 20 minutes. Until the dough is cooked through and the ends are a little golden.
2. Let the cookies cool a little before moving them to a wire rack or plate to cool completely.

Tip: Be careful not to overcook the horns to prevent the dough from being too hard and dry in the mouth.

Coated with powdered sugar

1. Prepare sugar syrup by mixing water and granulated sugar in a saucepan and heat over medium heat for about 5 minutes.
2. Dip the cookies in the sugar syrup for about 1 minute and then remove with a skimmer or let them drain on a rack.
3. Then dip them 1 to 2 times in the powdered sugar, help if necessary with your hands so that it sticks to the crescent.

Tip: Place the powdered sugar in a plastic bag with a seal, then put the cookies in it and close the bag and mix to coat well with powdered sugar.

Chocolate coating

1. Melt chocolate in the microwave or in a double boiler until it is well melted.
2. Then place in a bowl or glass.
3. Dip half of the horn into the melted chocolate and place on a sheet of baking paper.
4. Sprinkle with crushed almonds and let cool completely.

Conservation

Room temperature: To keep them fresh, place the cookies in a storage box with a lid and store them for several weeks at room temperature.

In the freezer: You can also keep them up to 3 months in the freezer, placed in preservation bags.

More Maghreb recipes

• Baghrir pancakes

More shortbread

• Jam linzer cookies
• White chocolate sandwich cookies
• German spritz cookies

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