Are there good ice cream and dessert spots in Morocco?

Morocco has a serious sweet tooth, and the dessert culture splits into two beautiful streams. The first is the traditional Moroccan pastry world: cornes de gazelle (crescents of almond paste in delicate pastry), feqqas, ghriba (crumbly shortbread cookies, sometimes coconut or almond), and the sticky, sesame-and-honey chebakia that appears everywhere during Ramadan. These are usually eaten with mint tea, and a good pâtisserie marocaine display is a genuine work of art.

The second stream is the French legacy — proper European patisserie. Cities have excellent French-style bakeries doing éclairs, millefeuille, tarts and viennoiserie that would hold up in Paris. Casablanca and Rabat in particular have refined patisseries where the Moroccan bourgeoisie buys its weekend cake. I love sending clients to these because it’s a side of Morocco people don’t anticipate: white-tablecloth elegance and a perfect lemon tart.

For ice cream, the surprise winner is Italian-style gelato, which has taken hold in Marrakech, Agadir and the coastal towns. There are gelaterias in Gueliz and around the Marrakech medina serving genuinely good scoops — date, fig, orange-blossom and other local flavours alongside the classics. On a hot afternoon it’s a lifesaver. Coastal Essaouira and the lagoon town of Oualidia also have lovely spots for something cold by the water.

My one bit of guidance: the most magical dessert experiences here are often the simplest and most local. A plate of warm sfenj (Moroccan doughnuts) dusted with sugar from a street fryer at breakfast, a bowl of fresh dates and walnuts, or seasonal fruit with a drizzle of argan-amlou. And if you visit during Ramadan, the post-sunset sweet tables are extraordinary — I’ll build an evening around them if your dates line up.