kaab el ghzal (Gazelle's horns)

Ingredients for 70 to 80 cakes :

Almond Paste

* 1 kg (2 lbs 3 oz) of almonds * 700 g (1 lb 9 oz) caster sugar * 3/4 glassful of orange-flower water

* 1/2 teaspoonful of cinnamon * 1 knob of butter the size of an egg

Pastry:

* 500 g (1 Ib 2 oz ) of flour *2 soupspoonfuls of orange-flower water * 1 egg * 1 soupspoonful of melted butter

Preparation of the almond paste:

Peel the almonds. rinse and wipe with a clean cloth. Add the sugar and orange-flower water. Put through the meat mincer once then add the cinnamon, the butter and the whole egg. Mix well and put through the mincer twice more. Knead this paste hard. Take a piece of almond paste the size of a fairly large apricot and shape into a small sausage, tapering each end. Continue making these sausages until all the paste has been used.

Preparation of the pastry:

Sieve the flour, make a hollow and put the butter and the orande-flower water in it, gradually, mixing to obtain a dough the consistency of bread dough.Knead hard for 30 minutes taking care not to spoil its elasticity. While preparing the gazelle’s horns, another person should continue kneading the dough until it is all used up.

Take a piece of dough, make a ball the size of an orange and roll out, turning over several times. Roll the pastry round the rolling pin, stretching it gently so as not to break it. Continue stretching while unrolling it on the table to form a long ribbon, quite wide but only 1 mm (1/24”) thick, like thin card-board.

* Place the little sausages of almond paste along the ribbon of dough horizontally, leaving about 3 to 4cm (1 1/4 to 1 3/4”) between each of them.

* Stretch the pastry sideways as thin as possible and fold in two to cover the almond sausages.

* Cut the pastry with a saw-edge pastry-cutter about 2 to 3 mm (1/10’) from the tip for each gazelle’s horn.

* Pinch lengthways, giving the cake the shape of a crescent. Prick each one with a fork. Place on a buttered baking sheet and cook in a moderate oven for 15 to 20 minutes.