kurkubini

Morocco is a favourite destination from travellers across the globe. Its architecture and culture have been influencing decorators and designers for years now. As a style, Moroccan, has been one of my favourites. The rich and warm colours along with the rich and sexy geometrical designs appeal to my aesthetic and consist one of my favourite design and decoration styles. I love browsing decorating ideas and lately as I was picking some wall colours I decided to get ideas from Moroccan designs. Some websites among with articles on decoration and architecture on Morocco they featured Moroccan recipes. Their recipes are simple, healthy and very aromatic as they blend spices with fruit and savoury dishes. Being attracted to sweet and sour dishes I wanted to try a few of them. I decided to wait until I came to Greece as since I share the love of experimenting with recipes with my aunt I knew she would love to join me in the baking. The first recipe I chose was the Moroccan snake cake M’hanncha. I chose it as it’s basic ingredient, almonds, is one of my favourites! The dessert turned very light and aromatic perfect for hot summer days! When my uncle tasted it he congratulated us as the flavour and aromas brought him back to his visit to Morocco. It was definitely a success!

Ingredients:

450g ground almonds
2 tbsp caster sugar
105g icing sugar
30g soft butter
2tbsp rose water
8 sheets filo pastry
1 egg yolk
55g butter
Cinnamon
100g caster sugar

We mix the almonds with the sugars, butter and rose water until we get a paste. Working the paste we form a long cylinder and we place it at the edge of a single filo pastry. We melt the 55g of butter and sprinkle along the filo. We sprinkle some sugar and cinnamon and then we roll it very tightly. We repeat for every single file until the paste finishes. We place every rolled filo in a buttered baking tray. Lastly we dilute the egg yolk in a bit of water and we brush the snake cake. Bake at 180° for about 20 minutes or until it gets light golden. Serve after shrinking some icing sugar and cinnamon on top. The dessert is best eat after it has cooled down as the aromas blend much better!