Amlou

What it is

Amlou is three pantry stars ground into one: almonds, roasted and then milled to a paste, enriched with culinary argan oil and sweetened with honey. The texture is deliberately rustic — grainier and looser than industrial nut butter — and the flavour is warm, nutty and mildly sweet, with the toasted-argan aroma running through it.

It comes from the same Souss and Anti-Atlas region as argan itself, where Amazigh (Berber) families make it at home; it is sometimes nicknamed 'Berber butter' or, for tourists, 'Moroccan Nutella'. Because it is essentially argan oil made portable and spreadable, it earns its place in the pantry as one of the tastiest ways to keep argan in the house.

The honest version is made with real argan and almonds. Cheaper 'amlou' can be bulked out with peanuts and neutral vegetable oil — palatable, but missing the whole point.

In the Moroccan kitchen

Amlou is overwhelmingly a breakfast and tea-time food. It is spread thickly on warm khobz, layered onto flaky msemen or sfenj, and set out beside bowls of argan oil and honey for dipping, all washed down with mint tea.

Beyond the breakfast table it works anywhere a sweet nut butter would: stirred into yoghurt or porridge, swirled onto pancakes, used as a filling for pastries, or spooned over ice cream. Some cooks thin it with a little extra argan and honey to make a pourable sauce.

It needs no cooking — it is a ready-made spread — so the 'technique' is really just serving it fresh, at room temperature, so the oils are soft and glossy.

• Spread on warm khobz, msemen or sfenj at breakfast
• Set out with argan oil and honey for bread-dipping
• Stirred into yoghurt, porridge or drizzled over pancakes
• As a sweet filling for pastries and briouat
• Thinned with argan and honey into a sauce for ice cream or fruit

How to choose & store

Read (or ask about) what is inside. Real amlou lists almonds, argan oil and honey — nothing else essential — and tastes distinctly of toasted argan. If a jar is suspiciously cheap, very smooth and tastes mainly of peanuts or plain sweetness, it has likely been cut with peanuts and vegetable oil. A little oil separating on top is normal and good; just stir it back in.

Texture should be thick and grainy, the colour a warm beige-brown. Taste before buying where you can — the argan aroma is the giveaway that you have the genuine article.

Buying it in Marrakech

What to look for at the stall — and how to buy well without invented prices to anchor you.

• Buy from argan cooperatives and honey-and-amlou stalls rather than generic souvenir shops, so you can ask what is in it.
• Ask whether it is made with argan oil and almonds — the real thing will say so proudly; hesitation usually means peanuts and vegetable oil.
• Taste for that toasted-argan note; a jar that tastes only of peanut and sugar is not true amlou.
• Look for a thick, grainy paste with a little oil on top, in a well-sealed jar for travelling.
• Buy a modest jar you will finish reasonably quickly, since argan-based spreads do not keep indefinitely.

Substitutes

• Make it yourself: grind roasted almonds to a paste, then blend in culinary argan oil and honey to taste — the only faithful route.
• If you cannot get argan, roasted almonds ground with a mild toasted nut oil and honey gives a close, if less aromatic, spread.
• At a pinch, a good almond butter loosened with honey stands in for the sweetness and nuttiness, minus the argan character.