How is amlou made?

Amlou is the breakfast that makes people fall quietly in love with the Moroccan south. It is often called Berber Nutella, which undersells it — it is richer, nuttier, and tastes of the argan country it comes from, the region around Essaouira, Agadir and the Souss valley where the argan trees grow. It is made from just three ingredients, but the quality of each is everything: almonds, culinary argan oil, and honey. There is nothing to hide behind, so amlou is only ever as good as the nuts and the oil that go into it, which is why the best comes from the cooperatives that press their own argan.

It starts with the almonds, which are toasted — dry-roasted gently in a pan or oven until they are golden and fragrant and their oils wake up. That toasting is what gives amlou its deep, warm, hazelnut-like flavour; raw almonds would make it flat. The toasted almonds are then ground, and traditionally this was done by hand, pounded in a stone mortar or run through the same stone hand-mill used for the argan kernels, working them patiently until the oils release and the nuts collapse from a powder into a thick, oily paste. It is slow work; modern kitchens use a blender, but the hand-ground version has a wonderful rustic texture.

Then the two liquids are worked in. Warm, roasted culinary argan oil is poured into the almond paste and blended until it loosens into something pourable and glossy, the oil carrying that distinctive nutty argan perfume right through it. Finally honey is stirred in to sweeten and bind — good local honey, sometimes a robust dark one — and the whole thing is beaten until it is smooth, thick and a deep golden-brown. The balance is to taste: some families keep it barely sweet and very nutty, others make it lusciously honeyed. It should be spoonable and a little runny, not stiff.

You eat amlou at breakfast, scooped up with torn pieces of fresh bread — often warm khobz or msemen, the flaky square pancakes — alongside a glass of mint tea. The richness of the argan oil, the toasted almond, the floral honey, all mopped up with bread, is genuinely one of the great morning pleasures of travelling in Morocco. On our journeys through the argan region I always build in a cooperative breakfast where guests eat amlou made on the spot from oil pressed in the next room — once you have tasted it that fresh, the jars at home never quite compare.