Almond briouates are Morocco’s bite-sized answer to pastilla — crisp, folded parcels of warqa pastry stuffed with sweetened, cinnamon-spiced ground almonds, usually saved for celebrations and Ramadan tables. They’re the kind of thing you can’t eat just one of.

A Sweet Pastry Worth the Folding Practice

The filling is really just toasted almonds, sugar, and cinnamon bound with a little butter, but it’s the folding technique — tight little triangles or cigars — that takes practice. Once you’ve got the warqa handling down here, my chicken pastilla uses the same pastry on a larger, savory scale.

1. Fry half the almonds
   
   • 500 g blanched almonds (boiled & peeled) → split in half.
   • In ~750 ml vegetable oil over medium-low, fry 250 g almonds. Start from cool oil so they cook through.
   • Stir until evenly golden. Drain well and let cool.
2. Grind almonds (two textures)
   
   • In a food processor, grind 2 g mastic gum (optional) with the raw 250 g almonds until fine “couscous-like”.
   • Grind the fried 250 g almonds until fine (they’ll be slightly clumpy from oil).
3. Make the filling & portion
   
   • Combine both almond batches. Add 45 g powdered sugar + ½ tsp cinnamon.
   • With mixer running, stream in 50 ml orange blossom water + 65 g melted butter until the mix clumps.
   • Form a big ball, then portion into 42 balls of 14–15 g each.
4. Prep wrappers
   
   • Use spring-roll pastry (thaw in the fridge).
   • Stack several sheets, fold into thirds, cut into strips ~19 cm × 6 cm. Keep covered so they don’t dry.
   • Mix a thick flour-water paste (or use egg white) for sealing.
5. Fold briouates (double-wrap)
   
   • Lightly oil work surface. Lay down two strips; brush lightly with oil.
   • Place an almond ball at one corner, press gently to flatten.
   • Fold into a triangle, pressing the corner at each turn.
   • On the second strip, repeat; before the last 1–2 folds, brush the edge with paste and seal both open sides well.
6. Dry the pastries
   
   • Cover and rest on the counter for a few hours or overnight to dry slightly. This helps them stay sealed.
7. Fry gently & soak in honey
   
   • Top up pan with ~250 ml fresh oil if needed. Heat to 140 °C / 285 °F (medium heat).
   • Fry briouates until light golden, flipping for even color — think gentle browning, not dark frying.
   • Immediately transfer into warm clear honey (500–700 g). Keep each batch in honey while the next batch fries; then swap.
   • Drain in a sieve. Garnish with sesame or almond slivers if you like.
8. Serve
   
   • Best with Moroccan mint tea. Crisp outside, chewy almond center, honey-glossed finish.