North Africa · Dessert
Jawhara (Crisp Wafers Layered with Sweet Almond Milk Custard)
Crisp, golden warqa pastry rounds layered with a velvety orange-blossom milk custard and topped with toasted crushed almonds.
The story
Hailing from the aristocratic kitchens of Fes, Jawhara (often called Ktefa) is the jewel of traditional Fassi wedding feasts. It transforms paper-thin warqa leaves into crisp pastry discs that shatter beneath a fragrant, starch-thickened milk cream called mahalabiya. A technical secret of Fassi grandmothers is frying the pastry in oil infused with a drop of orange blossom water to ensure long-lasting crispness and delicate perfume.
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