Amlou substitute

Best substitute

Almond butter, honey and hazelnut or walnut oil

1 cup almond butter + 3 tbsp honey + 1 tbsp hazelnut or walnut oil + pinch of salt

Best for breakfast with bread

Close match

Amlou is only three things: toasted almond, sweetness from honey, and the distinctive nutty, faintly funky roast of argan oil, and its job on the table is fat plus sweetness to eat with bread. The swap that gets closest is a cup of almond butter stirred with three tablespoons of honey and either a tablespoon of hazelnut or walnut oil, or just half a teaspoon of toasted sesame oil if that is what you have, plus a pinch of salt. Keep the sesame oil to a few drops; it is far more assertive than argan. If you want the real coarse, pourable texture, toast two cups of almonds, blitz them for five minutes until they turn to paste, then beat in the honey and oil. There is no substitute for argan oil itself, so accept that the spread will be a shade different rather than wrong.

Other amlou substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Almond butter, honey and a few drops of toasted sesame oil
Close match
1 cup almond butter + 3 tbsp honey + ½ tsp toasted sesame oil + pinch of salt
The pantry version, using toasted sesame oil to imitate argan's savoury edge.
What changes
Best for
breakfast spread, bread and flatbread, yoghurt topping, quick fix with no shopping
Surprisingly effective, because argan and toasted sesame share a roasted-seed character. Be strict about the quantity: half a teaspoon in a whole cup is right, and a tablespoon makes it taste like a satay sauce. The spread comes out slightly darker in flavour and a little more savoury than real amlou, which some people prefer. If you overshoot, stir in more almond butter and honey rather than trying to mask it.
3Homemade from whole toasted almonds
Close match
2 cups raw almonds, toasted; ¼ cup honey; 2 to 3 tbsp oil; ¼ tsp salt
The full method, which is the only way to get amlou's characteristic coarse, pourable body.
What changes
Best for
authentic texture, Moroccan breakfast plates, gifting, when jarred almond butter is too stiff
Roast the almonds at 350F for ten to twelve minutes until they smell strongly nutty and are golden inside, cool them completely, then blitz in a food processor for five to eight minutes, scraping down often, until they release their oil and turn to paste. Beat in the honey, oil and salt last. This is genuinely close to the real thing, and much better than any jarred butter because commercial almond butter is ground smooth and stiff whereas amlou should pour slowly off a spoon.
4Tahini with honey
Taste and texture differ
½ cup tahini + 2 tbsp honey + pinch of salt
Sesame paste sweetened, a Levantine cousin of the same idea.
What changes
Best for
bread and toast, drizzling over desserts, yoghurt, when almonds are off the menu
Delicious in its own right and a clear departure. Tahini is thinner, considerably more bitter and much more sesame-forward, so the spread reads as Levantine halva territory rather than Moroccan. It also separates and stiffens differently, going claggy if you add honey to cold tahini too fast; add it a spoonful at a time and stir hard. Good if you cannot eat almonds, but do not expect anyone to mistake it for amlou.
5Peanut butter with honey and a drop of almond extract
Different taste
1 cup smooth peanut butter + 3 tbsp honey + ¼ tsp almond extract + pinch of salt
The availability answer, nudged toward almond with extract.
What changes
Best for
children's breakfast, bread and pancakes, budget version
Honest assessment: this tastes like sweetened peanut butter, because peanut is a much louder flavour than almond and simply will not stand back. The almond extract genuinely helps, pulling the aroma toward almond even though the body still tastes of peanut. Use a natural unsweetened peanut butter if you can, since the sweetened kind plus honey becomes far too sugary. It works as a spread; it does not work as amlou.
6Almond butter and date syrup or maple syrup
Different taste
1 cup almond butter + 3 tbsp date syrup or maple syrup + 1 tbsp neutral or nut oil
The version for anyone avoiding honey, which is otherwise the standard sweetener.
What changes
Best for
vegan amlou, bread and toast, oatmeal topping
Date syrup is the better of the two and is regionally at home in North African cooking, giving a deeper, slightly caramel-molasses sweetness where honey is floral and clean. Maple works but brings its own unmistakable flavour, so the spread tastes faintly of pancakes. Both are thinner than honey, so the mixture ends up looser, which is actually closer to real amlou's pourable consistency than a honey version made with stiff jarred butter.

What is Amlou?

Amlou is Amlou, sometimes called amlou beldi, is a Moroccan breakfast spread from the Souss region made by grinding toasted almonds with culinary argan oil and honey into a loose, pourable nut butter.

Cooking tips

Culinary argan oil is a different product from cosmetic argan oil. The edible kind is pressed from roasted kernels, smells strongly nutty, and is sold in food shops; the cosmetic kind is unroasted, tastes of almost nothing, and is not intended or labelled for eating. If a bottle is sold for skin or hair, do not use it in food.
Amlou is supposed to be pourable, thick like a loose honey rather than stiff like a scoop of peanut butter. If your version sets firm, loosen it with another tablespoon of oil rather than more honey, because adding sweetness to fix texture makes it cloying.
Always toast the almonds. Raw almonds grind into a pale, chalky paste with a slightly bitter edge and none of the deep nuttiness that makes amlou worth eating. Ten to twelve minutes in a 350F oven, until they are golden all the way through when you cut one open, is the target.
It separates in the jar exactly like natural nut butter, with a layer of oil rising to the top. That is normal and not a sign it has gone off; stir it back in. It keeps a week or two at room temperature and a couple of months refrigerated, though cold amlou is stiff and needs twenty minutes on the counter before it spreads.
Amlou is a raw spread rather than a baking ingredient. The honey in it burns fast, so using it as a filling in something that bakes at high heat gives you a scorched, bitter layer. If you want it in a pastry, add it after baking or use it in a no-bake filling.

Frequently asked questions

What does amlou taste like?

Like a loose, honey-sweetened almond butter with an unusual savoury depth from the argan oil, which reads as nutty and toasted with a faint mushroomy or sesame-like note behind it. It is sweeter than plain nut butter but much less sweet than a chocolate spread, and the almond is the dominant flavour. Eaten the traditional way, poured over warm Moroccan bread at breakfast, it is closer to a drizzle than a spread.

Can I just leave amlou out?

If it is one item on a Moroccan breakfast table alongside olive oil, honey, jam and cheese, then yes, the meal still works. Where it is called for as a filling in a pastry, a layer in a dessert or a drizzle over msemen, you do need something in its place, and almond butter loosened with a little oil and sweetened with honey is a perfectly good stand-in. What you cannot do is substitute a dry ingredient, since amlou's job in those recipes is fat and sweetness.

Is argan oil essential to amlou?

In the strict sense, yes: amlou without argan is sweetened almond butter, and the argan is what makes people who know the spread recognise it. In practical terms, no, because the almond and honey carry most of the pleasure, and a nut oil like hazelnut or a few drops of toasted sesame oil covers a good part of the gap. Be aware that culinary argan oil is expensive, and if you are buying a bottle for one jar of amlou, the honest calculation is whether you will use the rest.

Is amlou the same as Moroccan almond paste or sellou?

No. Amlou is a pourable spread of ground toasted almonds, argan oil and honey. Sellou, also called sfouf, is a completely different Moroccan sweet: a dense, crumbly mixture of toasted flour, ground almonds, sesame, butter and sugar, eaten in spoonfuls rather than spread. Almond paste and marzipan are ground almonds bound with sugar into a stiff, mouldable dough for pastries. All three involve almonds and none of them is interchangeable with the others.

How long does homemade amlou keep?

Around one to two weeks at cool room temperature and up to a couple of months in the fridge, in a clean sealed jar. Ground nuts eventually turn rancid, and toasted ones a little faster than raw, so smell it before use: fresh amlou smells sweet and nutty, and rancid nut butter smells sharp and faintly of paint. The honey helps preserve it, and a spread with more honey lasts longer than a lean one.

Related substitutes

More nuts & seeds substitutes

Amlou substitute

Other amlou substitutes

2Almond butter, honey and a few drops of toasted sesame oil

3Homemade from whole toasted almonds

4Tahini with honey

5Peanut butter with honey and a drop of almond extract

6Almond butter and date syrup or maple syrup