Today is Morocco's celebration of independence from France, which it achieved in 1956.
While visiting the country just over a year ago, I was interested to see how French it still is. Many people still speak French; street signs on the cities are often in French; and some breads are similar too.
However, the country is also African and Islamic, so these influences are strong. A whole swathe of the world, in its hotter areas, make their breads on skillets or slapped onto the walls of ovens or cooked like these, above, in a communal oven, much like a pizza oven. Flatbreads make sense. They cook quickly and are ideal to wrap around, or fill with, the spicy dishes also common in these places.
In Marrakesh and other cities in Morocco, we came often across crumpet-like breads for sale as well. Moroccans like them with honey for breakfast, presumably so the honey can drip down into those little holes. I had no idea how they were made, so when I found these pancakes in a book – A
Month in Marrakesh, by Andy Harris, published in 2011 by Hardie Grant – I just had to
try to make them.
Here they are, altered a little to suit my tastes. Start early as
they must sit and rise for some time. They come out almost crumpet-like on top
and the word is that the Moroccan people like them with honey for breakfast,
presumably so the honey can drip down into those little holes.
This quantity
made A LOT of pancakes (I lost count) so I filled the leftovers with rocket and
cheese and baked them in a cheese sauce for dinner – delicious!
1 tablespoon dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2
cup warm water
2 eggs
150ml warm milk + 1 cup warm water
2 cups fine semolina
2
cups plain white flour
more warm water to make a thin batter
oil to fry
Put the yeast, sugar, salt and warm water in a bowl. Beat eggs in a bowl and add milk and 1 cup warm
water. Place semolina, flour and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer and mix
together. Pour in the egg mixture and mix well, then add the yeast mixture and
beat for about five minutes. The mixture should be like pouring cream, so add
enough more water to achieve this. Cover (I use a clean plastic shower cap kept
for the purpose) and leave for 1-2 hours.
When ready to make the pancakes, heat and grease a heavy
frypan, or use a non-stick pan. Ladle in just enough batter to coat the pan.
Swirl it around, and tilt the pan so that bubbles appear on the surface and
begin to break. Return to heat and cook for just long enough for the top to
set, then transfer to a plate without flipping the pancake. Pancakes may be
stacked on top of each other.
Delicious served with honey and butter spread on the lacy
side. Makes around 20.
