What regional sweets / pastries are there in Morocco?

Moroccan sweets are a universe of their own, and the pastry table that arrives with mint tea after a meal — or simply when guests appear — is a point of deep pride. These aren't dessert as an afterthought; they're an art form, often made in huge batches for festivals and weddings, perfumed with orange blossom, rosewater, cinnamon and honey. I could happily write a whole trip around them.

The most beautiful is kaab el ghzal, 'gazelle horns' — delicate crescents of thin pastry filled with orange-blossom almond paste, named for their graceful curve. Fes and the imperial cities make the most refined versions. Then there's chebakia, the Ramadan queen: sesame dough folded into rosettes, fried, drenched in honey and orange blossom, rolled in sesame seeds — sticky, fragrant, addictive. Briouats are crisp fried triangles of warqa pastry stuffed with almond paste (sweet) and soaked in honey.

For texture, ghriba is everywhere — short, crumbly little domes that crack as you bite, made with almonds, sesame, walnuts or coconut. Feqqas are twice-baked, almond-studded biscotti-style slices for dipping in tea. And sellou (also called sfouf or zmita) is in a class of its own: toasted flour, ground almonds, sesame, honey and butter pressed into a dense, nutty, energy-packed paste — eaten by the spoonful, especially during Ramadan and after childbirth for its nourishment.

Regional pride runs deep: Fes for its refined gazelle horns and layered pastries, Marrakech and the south for date-based sweets and sellou, the coast for lighter, almond-rich biscuits. Many are seasonal — chebakia for Ramadan, special trays for Eid and weddings. On our culinary days I love taking guests into a patisserie or a home kitchen to watch the dada shape gazelle horns by hand. It's slow, meditative, and the reward is the best mint-tea accompaniment on earth.