Ghreyba (Coconut Moroccan Cookies)

After that unbelievably tasty Moroccan Beef Stew, I’m still feeling the need for dessert. Moroccan, of course! And what better way to dessert than with butter cookies and a cup of tea? Or a glass of milk if you prefer something cold. This Ghreyba recipe checks all those boxes and it has coconut, which I adore. I think we have something here, but there’s only one way to know for sure, and that’s to make these cookies. Let’s get to it!

These coconut Moroccan cookies are made with semolina flour. Covered in powder sugar and with a hint of orange.

Recipe Author: Lizet Bowen at Chipa by the Dozen
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The Ingredients

With just seven ingredients, this ghreyba recipe promises to be super simple, and I’m all for that. Being a devout coconut lover, I had a couple of bags of grated coconut in my pantry. That left me to shop for the rest of the ingredients, and my regular grocery store had most of them.

They didn’t have the semolina flour, though, so I had to order it. I found a big bag for $7.99, and it had more than enough flour for this recipe. Don’t worry about having extra—I have a couple of other recipes that will use up the leftovers.

And although I could have bought bottled orange peel, I opted for fresh (there’s nothing like fresh citrus zest!). I planned to freeze the leftovers, but I used all of the zest.

Ghreyba (Coconut Moroccan Cookies) Ingredients
Semolina flour, powdered sugar, orange peel, eggs, grated coconut, baking powder, and vegetable oil

The Process

This ghreyba recipe promised to be difficult to mess up, but my luck with cookies comes and goes. Today it went, and my first try at this recipe wasn’t too successful.

The cookies tasted wonderful, but they didn’t look so good. I used a tablespoon to make what I judged to be 1.5-inch balls of dough. I was way off! The balls of dough were too big, and I only got 36 cookies out of it (the recipe says it makes 70).

To add more insult to injury, the cookies melted together, stuck to the baking sheets, and the bottoms burned a bit. The ones that didn’t break apart when I pried them off the baking sheets with a spatula were good, so I decided to give this recipe another try.

My first attempt resulted in cookies that were too big, melted together, and burned on the bottom.
My first attempt resulted in cookies that were too big, melted together, and burned on the bottom.

My second try went so much better! This time I used my teaspoon to measure and the cookies were much smaller. In fact, they might have been a tad too small as I managed to make 84 cookies. That’s seven dozen!

I was able to get a dozen cookies on each sheet pan, and I can fit two sheet pans in my oven. That meant I had to bake four batches of cookies. Here’s how my time was spent:

  • 15 minutes to prep the first batch
  • 15 minutes to bake each batch (I prepped the rest of the cookies while the 1st batch baked)
  • 3 minutes to rest
  • 1 hour 23 minutes total (not including time to cool)

Oh, and this time I lined the sheet pans with parchment paper so the cookies wouldn’t stock. The bottoms still browned thanks to the sugar caramelizing, but they didn’t stick. Also, I stumbled upon parchment sheets instead of the usual roll. These sheets are cut to size and they don’t curl up. Genius!

Parchment paper kept the grhyeba cookies from sticking to the sheet pan
Parchment paper kept the grhyeba cookies from sticking to the sheet pan

So how was it?

Clear & Accurate Directions
Accurate Time(s)
Appearance
Taste
I've never thought about pairing orange and coconut, and now I'm wondering why not. These ghreyba cookies were everything they promised to be and more! The texture was light and airy, and the taste was rich and buttery with plenty of coconut and a bit of orange. I also loved that the outside was crisp and the inside was soft. Despite my first attempt not working out so well, I'm now a fan. Making very small balls of cookie dough and using a sheet of parchment paper on the baking sheets fixed all of my issues. And I'm not exactly disappointed that I had to make this recipe twice.
The Hungry Pinner
The Hungry Pinnerhttps://www.hungrypinner.com
I'm Candice, and I'm The Hungry Pinner. I created this blog to share my love for cooking and my experiences with the MANY recipes I've found on Pinterest over the years. Join me as I blog my way through those recipes to find out if they are worth trying yourself.

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I've never thought about pairing orange and coconut, and now I'm wondering why not. These ghreyba cookies were everything they promised to be and more! The texture was light and airy, and the taste was rich and buttery with plenty of coconut and a bit of orange. I also loved that the outside was crisp and the inside was soft. Despite my first attempt not working out so well, I'm now a fan. Making very small balls of cookie dough and using a sheet of parchment paper on the baking sheets fixed all of my issues. And I'm not exactly disappointed that I had to make this recipe twice.Ghreyba (Coconut Moroccan Cookies)