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Ghriba are the cookies you met with mint tea in every riad — domed, crackle-topped, gone in two bites — and they are the easiest piece of Morocco to smuggle home, because the classic almond version needs five ingredients and no special equipment. Here is the traditional method, as taught in Marrakech kitchens.
The almond ghriba (about 25 cookies)
Ingredients: 250 g ground almonds · 120 g icing sugar (plus a bowl more for rolling) · 2 egg whites · zest of one lemon (or a teaspoon of orange-blossom water — the more Moroccan choice) · a pinch of baking powder and salt.
The method
Mix almonds, sugar, baking powder, salt and zest. Add egg whites gradually until you have a soft, sticky paste — stop while it still barely holds a ball. Rest it 15 minutes. With damp hands, roll walnut-sized balls, then roll each generously in icing sugar. Bake at 170 °C for 12–15 minutes: the tops crack into the signature fissures, the outside sets, the inside stays chewy. The rule that matters: underbake slightly — ghriba firm as they cool, and a dry ghriba is a lesson learned.
The family of variations
Coconut ghriba (swap half the almonds), walnut, sesame — every Moroccan family backs one. The chewy centre and cracked dome define the species; the trays in the medina pastry shops sell them by weight beside the rest of the canon.
Taste them at the source
Every cooking class we arrange can end with a ghriba lesson on request, and the pastry stops are built into our food-and-drink routes. Serve yours with proper mint tea, poured from a height you find slightly alarming.
Everything on this page can be woven into a private itinerary — start from a private Marrakech day with a food-savvy guide, and we shape the rest around you.
Samira El Idrissi — Samira writes about Moroccan cooking and the culture around it: souk produce, home kitchens, street food you can trust your stomach to, and the pastry trays that appear whenever a Moroccan family decides you look thin. She tests the food safety advice she gives, which her colleagues consider either dedication or recklessness depending on the week.
