Whip Up This Easy Almond Pastry in Just 15 Minutes!

If you love Middle Eastern pastries like gazelle horns, makrout, and baklava, especially when they’re homemade, then you know they can be quite challenging to make. Typically, these sweets are fried or drenched in syrup. Recall the last time you attempted to make them, and your kitchen turned into a disaster zone, with oil splattered all the way to the ceiling and the counters sticky for a week. Forget that nightmare scenario; there’s a simpler delight in store. Chef Karima El Makhloufi has shared a “quick and super simple” recipe that doesn’t require any special equipment: ghriybas dial zit. These are small, round cookies with a delicious almond flavor that are crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. No frying or syrup needed, and no kitchen chaos necessary!

Ingredients for Ghriybas Dial Zit

Here are the amounts needed to make about twenty cookies.

• 1 cup of sunflower oil
• 1 cup of powdered sugar
• 2 cups of flour
• 1/2 cup of almond powder
• 1 tsp of baking powder
• 1 tbsp of toasted sesame seeds (optional)

How to Make Ghriybas Dial Zit

For this recipe, you won’t need cookie cutters; just a mixing bowl and a spatula for stirring.

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (180°C).
2. In your mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients in the order listed. Add the flour gradually—you may need to adjust the amount depending on how much it absorbs, as the chef notes. The goal is to have a pliable dough that does not crumble.
3. Form the dough into balls weighing about 20 grams each.
4. Place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, spacing them well apart.
5. Press down in the center to create a small indentation as seen in the photo.
6. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Be careful to keep the ghriybas dial zit white: overcooking will make them hard and dry, the chef advises.

Let them cool on a rack. They taste wonderful plain, but you can also fill them with melted chocolate or caramel for an extra treat. You’ll have to try them to believe how good they are!