Sellou

A rich, sandy-textured confection of toasted flour, fried almonds, and ground sesame bound with honey, melted butter, and warm spices. Calorie-dense and intensely nutty, it is a treasured Ramadan energy food eaten in small spoonfuls or pressed into mounds.

Sellou — also sfouf or zmita — is a dense Moroccan sweet of toasted flour, almonds and sesame bound with honey and butter, made to restore energy after the Ramadan fast. It keeps for weeks and grows richer with time.

Dense, sandy, and meltingly rich, it dissolves into a buttery rubble of toasted grain and nut on the tongue. Cinnamon and anise hum underneath deep honeyed sweetness, with fried almonds adding crunch to each spoonful.

Toasting the flour and nuts develops Maillard flavors and removes raw starchiness, giving sellou its signature roasted depth. Butter and honey coat the dry powders so they bind into a cohesive, energy-dense paste.

Variations

with extra ground sesame (zmita-style), with gum arabic, with fennel seeds, molded into cones, formed into bite-sized balls

On the Palate

Where Sellou sits in the Moroccan flavor cloud

Ingredients

Serves 12

4 cupsAll-Purpose Flour

How it's made

8 steps · 30 min

1
12 min
Toast the flour in a dry pan or oven, stirring often, until deeply golden and fragrant.
Watch out
Toast the flour until it turns deep golden and smells like baked biscuits — pull it before it browns or the whole batch tastes scorched.
2
6 min
Fry the blanched almonds in oil until golden, then drain and reserve a few for garnish.
3
5 min
Toast unhulled sesame seeds until they pop and smell nutty, then grind most of them.
Watch out
Listen for the sesame to start popping and go nutty — that pop is your cue they're toasted through.
4
4 min
Grind the fried almonds and toasted sesame coarsely, leaving some texture.
5
3 min
Mix the toasted flour, ground almonds, ground sesame, cinnamon, and ground anise together.
6
6 min
Stir in melted butter and warm honey until the mixture clumps and holds together.
Watch out
Stir in the butter and honey until the powder just clumps and holds a squeeze — too wet and it won't crumble right.
7
4 min
Adjust sweetness and spice, then mound onto a plate or press into small balls or squares.
8
5 min
Decorate with whole fried almonds and a dusting of cinnamon, then serve at room temperature.