Fes Dessert Workshop - Fassi Sweets, Almonds & Orange Blossom

As Morocco's culinary capital, Fes takes its sweets as seriously as its tagines. Fassi households are proud of an elaborate repertoire of almond, honey and orange-blossom confections, made in great batches for weddings, feasts and Ramadan. This dessert workshop, in a Fes el Bali riad, teaches the classics that define the city's sweet table, a more precise and patient craft than a savoury class.

You make the celebrated Fassi sweets: kaab el ghazal, the crescent gazelle horns filled with orange-blossom almond paste; ghriba, the crumbly almond or coconut shortbreads; and, depending on the session, sellou - the toasted-flour, almond and honey paste eaten for energy and at celebrations - or briouat, the crisp warqa triangles filled with sweet almond. The host explains the building blocks: almond paste, honey at the right temperature, and the orange-blossom and rosewater that perfume Moroccan sweets.

It is a slower, more delicate workshop than a tagine class, ideal for keen bakers and for families with older children, and you box up what you make to take away as an edible souvenir. Set in the world's greatest medieval medina, and drawing on Fes's status as the home of refined Moroccan cooking, it is a rewarding deep dive into the sweet side of the cuisine, finished over mint tea with the pastries you shaped.