Moroccan Cooking Part 2: Bread!

Moroccan bread is one of my favorite parts of the cuisine. There are many different kinds, each with prepared and eaten at certain times and in certain ways.

The first kind I learned how to make is harcha, a pan-cooked wheat bread. It is made from semolina (like cous cous) rather than regular white flour. The semolina is mixed with oil (or melted butter) and water or milk, as well as a pinch of sugar and salt. It is then placed on a hot pan or griddle and patted into rounds about half an inch thick, in sizes varying from two inches to ten inches. It's delicious plain, hot off the grill. It's often served with butter, Moroccan fresh cream cheese, and honey.

Another delightful type is erghayef, made with mostly white flour and a little bit of semolina. It starts out like a normal bread dough, with milk, oil, water, salt, and a little baking powder - no yeast. The dough is left to rest and then formed into small balls.

These are flattened out reeaaalllyy thinly and carefully folded in thirds in both directions to create a crispy layered texture. Sometimes they are filled with spiced vegetables and bits of meat.

Then the squares are stretched out slightly before being grilled to golden brown.

Erghayef is eaten with both savory and sweet accompaniments - sometimes cheese and sliced canned beef (which for some reason is super popular here), sometimes with butter and honey, sometimes with chocolate spreads, sometimes with jam.

The most basic type is probably hobz maklah, which just means pan bread. It is made from wheat flour and yeast, and is kneaded and flattened into rounds before being cooked on the griddle.

This type is often eaten with savory dishes like soup, lentils, or meat, but might also be eaten for breakfast or a snack with butter and honey.

My faaaaavorite type of bread (actually it changes every week) is baghrir, a super light, fluffy, yeasted crepe. It is made from a thin batter of flour, semolina, water, oil, sugar, and yeast, and left to rest for 30 minutes to an hour before being cooked quickly in a frying pan. The preparation is much like a pancake, expect that you don't flip it - there is no need because there are so many bubbles that the top is cooked by the time the bottom is done.

Baghrir is almost always eaten with sweet things - butter, honey, jam, or amlou, ground almonds mixed with oil and honey. The bubbly structure makes it perfect for soaking up the sweet, buttery goodness! I can't wait to make these at home and try them with maple syrup.

These are the types of bread I've helped make, but there's a bunch more! There's erghayef in different shapes, oven-baked yeasted rounds, a type that kind of looks like spaghetti squished together in a pancake shape, basic soft white baguette-shaped loaves eaten with soup, and many more. And that's just in Tangier - every region has its own bread cultures and traditions. Being in Moroccan has given me a much deeper appreciation for the delicious culinary possibilities of bread, as well as its deep cultural and nutritional significance.