Sellou

Flour toasted in a dry oven until it is the colour of sand, then bound with butter and honey and never cooked again.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (butter), honey.

Ingredients

• 500 g plain flour
• 300 g blanched almonds
• 250 g sesame seeds
• 250 g butter, melted
• 200 g honey
• 150 g icing sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground anise
• 1/2 teaspoon ground mastic, optional
• a pinch of salt

Method

1. THE FLOUR IS TOASTED DRY AND IT TAKES AN HOUR. Spread on a tray in a 160C oven and stirred every ten minutes until it is the colour of wet sand and smells like biscuits. Raw flour is the single thing that ruins this: it tastes pasty and sits heavily, and no amount of honey covers it. An hour, and the colour is the test rather than the clock.
2. NOTHING IS COOKED AFTER THE MIXING. The three dry things are toasted separately, ground, and then bound with melted butter and honey into a stiff paste that is pressed into a mound and eaten. There is no baking stage, which is why every one of those three has to be properly toasted on its own.
3. THE ALMONDS AND SESAME ARE GROUND BUT NOT TO A POWDER. Sellou should be slightly gritty and sandy in the mouth -- that texture is the dish. Ground smooth it turns to an oily paste.
4. Flour spread on a large tray and toasted at 160C for about 1 hour, stirred every 10 minutes, until evenly sand-coloured. Watch the edges, which colour first.
5. Almonds fried in oil until golden, or roasted at 160C for 15 minutes. Drained and cooled.
6. Sesame seeds toasted in a dry pan over a medium heat, stirred constantly, 5 minutes, until golden and popping. Tipped straight out.
7. EVERYTHING COOLED COMPLETELY before grinding. Warm nuts release their oil and the mixture goes greasy.
8. Sesame ground to a coarse meal. Almonds ground coarsely, with a handful kept back whole for the top.
9. The toasted flour sieved -- it will have lumps -- then mixed with the ground sesame, ground almonds, icing sugar, cinnamon, anise, mastic and salt.
10. Melted butter and honey poured over and worked in with the hands, not a spoon, until it holds together when squeezed in a fist.
11. IT SHOULD BE STIFF, NOT WET. More flour if it is greasy, a little more melted butter if it will not hold.
12. Pressed firmly into a mound on a plate, or into a dish and flattened, and the whole almonds pressed into the top.
13. Left 2 hours to firm. It keeps a month in an airtight container and is eaten in small spoonfuls with mint tea as on its own page.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Morocco · All recipes