This recipe is one of the most festive in this Advent Calendar. It needs more time than any others, but I am sure, that the result will surprise you and you won’t regret your time.

So let’s focus on the recipe. The recipe comes from Moroccan cuisine, which explains the presence of almonds and honey in the list of ingredients, and even more so the unusual shape of the cookies.

I might say that I used a simplified molding: I have seen examples of gazelle horns in which the entire surface of the cookie is covered with intricate patterns, made with small tweezers and a thin wooden skewer. A real artwork! And so much work! Perhaps someday I will decide to repeat this lace on cookies, but for now – a simplified version.

Gazelle Horns Cookies
Cookie advent calendar, day 9

Ingredients

Dough

200 g all purpose flour
a pinch of salt
100 g melted butter
6-7 tbsp warm water – see comments below

Filling
100 g almond flour and 50 g almond nibs OR 150 g chopped almonds

75 g white sugar
25 g melted butter
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp liqueur

Syrup
1 tbsp honey
3-4 tbsp water
1 tbsp liqueur (optional)

50 g powdered sugar for for sprinkling

Method

1. Preheat oven into 150 °С.

2. First let’s make dough. Melt the butter and cool a little.

3. Combine flour, butter and salt in a food processor and pulse briefly. Add warm water, one tablespoon at a time, kneading the dough thoroughly after adding water. Once the dough starts to come together, stop adding water. You should get a soft elastic dough. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and leave to rest.

4. Let’s prepare the filling. Mix almond flour and almond nibs. Or, if you are using whole almonds, grind them. You can take unpeeled almonds.

5. Add sugar and liqueur. Now with wet hands, roll the resulting mass into small oblong cylinders about 1.5 cm long. Place them on a plate.

6. Divide the entire dough into small balls the size of large hazelnuts.

7. Roll out each ball until translucent. You can roll out the dough directly on the counter without flouring or buttering. The dough will be very easy to roll out and fold.

8. Place the filling on one edge and wrap it in the dough. Punch down the resulting cookies, stretching them slightly towards the edges, trim off the excess dough. Shape the cookies into a crescent shape and place on a baking tray lined with baking paper.

9. Make all the cookies in the same way.

10. Bake cookies about 16 minutes.

11. Prepare the syrup. Mix honey and water. Add liqueur if desired.

12. While the cookies are still hot, dip each cookie in the syrup and then roll in powdered sugar. Cool and serve.