Tcharek M’saker
Overview
Tcharek M'saker are elegant crescent-shaped Algerian cookies made from ground almonds, sugar, orange blossom water, and egg, formed into half-moon shapes and baked until golden, then dusted generously with icing sugar while still warm. They are delicate, intensely almond-flavoured, and represent the refined sweet-making tradition of Algerian confectionery. The cookies appear at every Algerian celebration from Eid to weddings, arranged in neat rows on serving plates alongside tea. Their simplicity is deceptive, producing a product of considerable elegance from very few ingredients. The orange blossom water is essential, its floral perfume being the note that elevates them into something distinctly North African.
AFN Heritage Note
Tcharek M'saker belongs to the family of North African almond-based celebration cookies shared across Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. The use of ground almonds reflects the historical importance of almond cultivation in the Maghreb. The crescent shape is characteristic of North African Islamic confectionery tradition passed through generations of Algerian home baking.
Ingredients
Dietary tags are provided by contributors as a guide, not verified by AFN, and they depend on the products you buy. If you have a serious allergy, check every ingredient yourself. Cooking, allergies and your own judgement
Directions
- 1
In a large bowl, add the flour, the vanilla sugar, the salt and the ghee.
- 2
Start mixing all the ingredients together.
- 3
Slowly pour water+orange blossom water mix and continue to mix until you form a soft dough.
- 4
Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes.
- 5
In a shallow bowl, add the almond powder, the sugar, the soft butter and the cinnamon.
- 6
Mix the ingredients with your fingers.
- 7
Add slowly the orange blossom water (spoon by spoon).
- 8
Mix until you obtain a paste.
- 9
Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- 10
Remove from the refrigerator and roll small balls (12 grams each).
- 11
Proceed the same way for the rest of the dough.
- 12
Roll each small ball into a small log of 10 centimeters and set aside.
- 13
Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- 14
Flour a clean surface.
- 15
Remove the dough from the refrigerator.
- 16
Flatten the dough with a rolling pin (very thin).
- 17
Make circle with a round cookie cutter (12 centimeters).
- 18
Place the stuffing on the edge of the circle.
- 19
Roll with your fingers to make a log, and then bend the sides to make the shape of a crescent (the edges should be thin, see as the picture).
- 20
Proceed the same way with all the circles.
- 21
Bake at 180C degrees for 30 minutes or until the bottom is gold.
- 22
Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
- 23
In a large bowl add 500ml of orange blossom water.
- 24
Dip each crescent into the orange blossom water and put them into a colander.
- 25
Proceed the same way for all the crescents.
- 26
In another bowl add icing sugar.
- 27
Coat each crescent into the icing sugar.
- 28
Repeat this procedure two times for a nice coating (wait one hour between the two coatings).
- 29
Serve these succulent pastries with coffee or a fragrant mint tea.
Reviews
5 reviews
In Kinshasa we make beignets and focus on savory dishes like pondu, but my Algerian neighbor here in Silver Spring brought these crescent pastries over last year and I was obsessed. Made them today using ghee from the local halal store. Pour de vrai, the cinnamon and almond powder filling smells divine. Resting the dough for 30 minutes in the fridge is definitely key to handling it.
Herh, North Africa people and their almond sweets paa! In Ghana we don't really use orange blossom water like this, but my sister brought a bottle from abroad so I tried it. That dough needs to chill in the fridge for the full 30 minutes o, if you rush it the soft butter in the almond powder mixture makes shaping very messy. Good treat chale.
Had to hunt down vanilla sugar at the international supermarket in Adamsdown as my local Tesco only had liquid extract. Dough was a bit dry when adding the orange blossom water mix so I had to add an extra splash of plain water to get it to gather into a soft ball before resting it in the fridge. Turned out quite nice in the end though.
Makes a lovely addition to the labarang platter alongside our usual Cape Malay koesisters. The combination of orange blossom water and cinnamon in the almond paste reminds me of the sweet treats my late auntie would prepare during Ramadan. I used unsalted butter instead of ghee for the dough and it worked out perfectly.
Spent half an hour searching Sainsbury's before finding orange blossom water in a little Middle Eastern grocery on London Road. Was worried 50ml would be too strong in the flour and ghee mixture, but the aroma when kneading the dough is lovely. Baked them for tea and the almond filling stayed so soft and moist.