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The Moroccan Bread, all kinds that you have to try

Nothing can beats a fresh baked bread coming straight out of the oven with some melting butter inside and pure honey, paired with a hot steaming cup of mint tea … if that is your favorite breakfast, In Morocco this is an everyday sort of thing. And not only within the breakfast, it will be on the table for lunch and dinner and every time in between. The bread is so important for moroccan people, it’s the main consumed daily product and we produce it massively. In our local arabic language “Darija” sometimes the word “Khobz” (Bread) means Work, literally we say a common expression that means i’m going to look for a piece of bread which stands for i’m going to work.

In our food culture, we Moroccans eat a lot of bread, Bread is also as a utensil we use it to pick vegetable and meat from the dish, it fits perfectly with our traditional cuisine what consists of tagines, soups, barbeques and vegetables, and also our sharing culture because traditionally and usually we eat all from the same dish, and there’s of course a certain polite way to do it.

Until the 1980’s all Moroccan families use to make their bread at home and they carry it to be baked in “Ferran” a community oven, and they are located strategically in every neighborhood, and they baked dozens of round loaves at once, you can still find them in many ancient neighborhood in morocco But nowadays they produce their own bread to sell directly to their customers.

Every region in morocco had it own technique of making bread traditionally and also we do have a lot of kinds of bread that you will probably find on every market, In this article we’re gonna list 8 kinds of bread that you can actually find almost everywhere


Round Bread

Round Bread “Khobz”

The most commonly consumed, it’s cooked in the oven and it can be made using different main flour ingredient you can find bread based on white flour, barley, oat, wheat or semolina. The texture change depending on the main base ingredient but all of them are fluffy and taste so good. In some modern bakeries you can find other varieties with some tweaks to make the flavour better, they add olives or anise seeds or poppy flower seeds or sunflower seeds …


Msemmen or Rghayef

Msemmen or Rghayef or Meloui

It’s a rich traditional, pancake like bread Morocco, it’s literally like the indian, paratha. You make your paste based on flour and oil into a flat folded square or round shape, to give it it’s crunchy texture in the edges and fluffy inside, after cooking it in a hot pan. Just a perfect bread for brunch, breakfast or even just an evening snack, that goes usually with some cheese or Jam or honey.

Rziza or Rezat Elkadi

Rziza

Which means the judge turban, because of the technique used to make it. It demands a very hight baking skills, the recipe is the same as Msemmen basically but the technique is different, it’s like the Chinese noodles you need make a long tube of dough you stretch it and make it long, you keep this process till obtaining a very long thin wire dough, you shape it round around your hand like a turban you put it to the pan and gently try to make it as a pancake, when it’s cooked the edges are very golden brownish colors nicely crunchy, and the inside stays always fluffy. we call that also the moroccan spaghetti.


Krachel, the Moroccan brioche

Krachel or Gorss or Brioche 

The moroccan Sweet Rolls, and this is such a common memory for us moroccans, when it’s freshly baked by your grandmother you just cut it in half and put some butter on it. The perfect snack for an afternoon tea with family or friends. The texture is so soft with some sesame seeds and granulated sugar on top just AMAZING !!

Batbout

Batbout or Mkhamer

It’s a soft and chewy texture, a perfect bread for some savory fillings, you can make them a one bite size or bigger like a sandwich, Or it can be also the breakfast bread with some jam or honey spreaded on the top of it. The recipe is similar to the Moroccan Regular Bread “Khobz” but it’s cooked in a Hot pan.

 

Harcha

Harcha

Which means in Darija the moroccan dialect “the Rough one”, and the name is for it’s sandy texture referring to the grainy semolina we made the gallettes with. In the traditions this bread was made as a big round shape served on a big plate with a lot of honey and butter melting on top of it, of course with her fidel companion the moroccan mint tea. Now a days you will find it in a small individual shape, easy to serve and customisable. And Harcha is super easy to make and you can prepare with one dough multiple variations like cheese, olives or your favorite grains mix.

 

Beghrir, La crepe à 1000 Trous

Beghrir

The moroccan crepes, or the crepe with a 1000 hole, you might imagined the holes and how spongy and soft the texture will be, the perfect crepe is the one that has more holes. And this an essential component in Aid’s Table, the day that marks the end of Ramadan the holy month


Medfouna

Medfouna

Called also The Berber pizza, a flat round bread stuffed usually with onions and meat, and cooked in a special traditional clay and rocks oven, it’s originally a leftover dish prepared by the end of the week. A super tasty and rich kind of bread that you will find only in the south west of Morocco in Erfoud, Rissani and Rachidia. A pure dessert dish.

3 Comments

  1. Terry Hanson

    Please help me. We went to Morocco souk and bought a flat bread from a seller. It had a sweet taste and could be roled. I was told it is only made in Marrakech do you have the name and recipe please

    • Mohamed Mohamed Benmokhtar

      That should be Msemmen or Rghayef and the sweetener is honey or some kind of Jam … if you have a picture of it send it to me and i’ll give you more specifics 😉

    • Bouchra

      That’s M’semen. You can find it anywhere in Morocco. The guy was pulling your leg. ?
      Recipes can found on YouTube.
      Cheers!
      I hope you had a great experience in our beautiful country.

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