It seems that every nation has its own pancake recipe. I've tried almost everything - from tissue paper-thin pancakes to thick American pancakes, but most of all I like the ones my friend bakes. She calls these pancakes Moroccan.
Why? Because in the country of “1001 nights”, pancakes come out with a thousand holes. They have an airy, soft and fluffy sponge-like texture that just melts in your mouth. The real name of the dish is begrir; in Morocco it is eaten during Ramadan, washed down with lemonade or mint tea.
I love these pancakes. For a long time, a friend did not want to share the secret of lace pancakes, joking that it was a “company secret.” And finally she told me. It's about yeast and semolina.
Ingredients (for two pancake options)
Begrir is prepared from crushed durum wheat grains. This semolina does not need “culinary cement” - eggs. If you have such cereal (250 g), then the ingredients of the dish are as follows:
- 600 ml warm water;
- 200 g flour;
- spoon of sugar;
- 10 g dry yeast;
- a teaspoon of baking powder;
- a pinch of salt.
If you do not have crushed Durum wheat, then you can use regular semolina (200 g). But in this case, the list of other ingredients will be slightly different:
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- 200 g flour;
- 500 ml warm water;
- 1-2 eggs;
- a packet of baking powder for dough;
- a tablespoon of baking soda;
- 7 g dry yeast;
- 2 packets of vanilla sugar (if you want to make pancakes for dessert; for a savory filling, skip this and the next steps, but add more salt);
- spoon of sugar;
- a pinch of salt.
What it is
Moroccan pancakes (baghrir, etc.) are light, fluffy and extremely porous flatbreads. There are so many holes that these pancakes are compared to honeycombs or foam rubber.
Traditional Moroccan pancakes are made with yeast, semolina and flour (and often without eggs). Due to the interaction of these ingredients, an amazing foamy dough is obtained, saturated with a huge number of small bubbles.
Most often, the taste of these pancakes is neutral, almost tasteless. This is done so that they can be flavored and soaked with various tasty and sweet additives, such as honey, butter, jam, etc.
You ask: “What is the secret of these pancakes, why do they look like that? After all, we cook from the same ingredients!” Yes, the composition is essentially the same. We also have different yeast pancakes. Somewhat similar Mordovian pancakes with semolina are also popular.
The main difference between Moroccan pancakes is the cooking technique! They are fried only on one side and over low heat. You can often come across the opinion that the dough for each pancake should be poured onto a cooled frying pan. It is due to these factors that they turn out so light and soft.
By the way, I recommend that you take a look at these pages sometime later. Similar dishes and interesting collections of recipes await you there.
Step by step recipe
Since there have already been a lot of words about Moroccan pancakes above, let’s not waste time and get to cooking right away!
- Semolina – 140 g.
- Wheat flour – 70 g.
- Water – 360 ml.
- Dry yeast – 5 g.
- Sugar – 1-2 teaspoons (more if you need a sweet taste);
- Salt – 1 pinch;
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All of the listed ingredients are familiar and accessible to us.
The water should be slightly heated until pleasantly warm. Stir in yeast, sugar and salt.
Sift the flour, then mix with semolina.
Pour the dry ingredients into the yeast water and beat well. You should get a runny dough without any sticky flour or semolina lumps.
Cover the bowl with pancake dough with a towel and leave for 1 hour. There is no need to rush here. If you start cooking earlier, the pancakes will turn out less foamy, and you will also notice a yeasty taste.
Time has passed - the dough has come. The semolina softened, bubbles formed on the surface of the dough due to the yeast, and the consistency itself became a little thicker. Mix well again.
All! You can start cooking. Place the frying pan on the stove and grease it with oil if desired. Pour in the dough and turn on medium heat. The volume of dough (pancake size) is at your discretion, as both small and large pancakes are prepared.
The pan heats up slowly, therefore the dough gradually bakes.
Let's look at the pancake. As you can see, it gradually turns from white to yellowish (visible from the edges). We wait until the dough sets in the center of the pancake, then remove it from the pan. There is no need to turn these pancakes over and fry them on the other side!
This is how pancakes turn out. Very soft and spongy!
Pour a stream of cold water over the heated frying pan from the back to cool it down quickly. Let's do the whole operation again.
Yes, constantly cooling and heating the pan will make the cooking process longer and more tedious, but it's worth it! Real Moroccan pancakes should be light on both sides.
But no one is stopping you from moving away from all these standards! You can also fry in a heated frying pan. True, in this case the pancake will be so ruddy on one side.
Some people like it even better. In general, decide for yourself.
Impregnation (syrup) for pancakes
So these pancakes do not have any bright taste; they definitely need to be supplemented with something. You can simply grease with honey or butter. But here you will see something more interesting! We will cook sweet and aromatic honey-cream syrup (caramel). Everything is extremely simple!
- Honey – 6 tbsp. spoon;
- Butter (soft) – 2 tbsp. heaped spoons;
- Water – 1/4 cup;
- Lemon juice – 1 teaspoon (optional);
- Place the butter in a small saucepan and melt it over low heat.
- Add honey. Stir and simmer for 1 minute.
- Pour water, maybe a spoonful of lemon juice for flavor.
- Stir constantly and wait for it to boil. Simmer for a couple of minutes and remove from heat.
Pour the resulting syrup over a stack of freshly baked pancakes. They will be well soaked, juicy and sweet.
Cooking notes and tips
The classic recipe was described above, but nothing prevents you from adding some of your own ideas that will help improve or diversify the taste, appearance, and aroma of the dish.
- Add a couple of spoons of cocoa and 2-3 pinches of ground cinnamon to the pancake dough (you can find out more in the article on chocolate pancakes).
- You can diversify the aroma using vanilla sugar or vanillin.
- You can decorate with coconut shavings, grated chocolate or pieces of fresh berries.
- In addition to water, milk, kefir, whey and even sweet yogurt are perfect for kneading. Try it - you won't regret it!
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And in this video you can see another cooking option.
So, I decided to throw you some interesting pancakes. They were shown to us by a woman who came from Morocco. This is not a classic recipe from the internet from a chef, but exactly the way ordinary people cook them. Everything was interesting: from the selection of ingredients to their preparation. Well, everything in order:
Dough preparation method
In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients. Beat in the eggs. Gradually add hot water, stirring all the time with a whisk. At the end, beat the mass with a submersible mixer or blender for 4-5 minutes.
Cover the dough with cling film and leave it to “ferment” for half an hour. After 30 minutes, stir the dough to remove any air bubbles. Place the frying pan over medium heat and grease it with oil. You need to pour more dough than for frying traditional Russian pancakes.
And the best part is that you don’t need to turn them over. This dough is saturated with air, which, when frying, will rise and form such delicious holes.
What to serve with Moroccan pancakes
Thick begrirs cannot be folded into an envelope. Yes, this is not necessary. Serve the pancakes simply by placing the filling on top. Thanks to the holes, honey or ghee seeps out onto both sides of the product. But here’s another idea for the filling, or rather, for the coating - with mascarpone.
The recipe for a festive version of begrir is as follows. In a mixer, beat half a cup of cream with a quarter cup of powdered sugar until stiff peaks form. In another bowl, beat 150g mascarpone cream cheese with half a teaspoon vanilla until soft and creamy. Mix both masses. Place fluffy white cream on top of each pancake. And stack the products themselves until you get a tall sandwich cake. Spread the sides of the dessert with the remaining cream and enjoy.
The pancakes turn out to be very filling, and this should be taken into account by those who are watching their figure. But when you try the first thing, all thoughts about diet will instantly disappear from your head. Well, it’s simply impossible to tear yourself away!
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Moroccan pancakes Beghrir
These pancakes are interesting in that they are fried only on one side, and even this should remain the same color as the front side.) Of course, mine didn’t turn out perfect, but still similar!) Real Baghrir should be light, very porous and not fried with one side.
You will need:
300 grams of wheat flour 100 grams of semolina (you can use semolina) 2 egg yolks 1 teaspoon of sugar (do not add more, as the sauce will be quite sweet) 1 teaspoon of olive oil a pinch of salt a pinch of baking powder (I put half a teaspoon spoons) 1/2 teaspoon dry yeast slightly warm water (to the consistency of regular thin pancakes, it took me 850 ml)
Sauce: 90 grams butter 7 tbsp. spoons of honey Place butter and honey in one container and melt. We will grease pancakes with this sauce.
How to cook:
1. Mix all the dry ingredients, add the yolks and olive oil, gradually adding water, beat everything with a mixer for about 2 minutes - until the consistency of dough for thin pancakes. Cover and let rise for at least 45 minutes, maximum 1 hour.
There are several secrets to the successful preparation of these pancakes that must be strictly followed, otherwise the pancakes will not turn out the way they should be:
1. DO NOT preheat the pan! The dough is always poured into a cold frying pan and fried over medium heat and only on one side. After each pancake, turn the pan upside down, place it under running cold water and hold for 15 seconds until it cools. Then put it back on the fire and pour the dough into the center. 2. The dough is poured strictly into the center and is NOT distributed throughout the pan, as we do with regular pancakes. 3. If the dough is too thick, the pancakes will not bubble actively. 4. Do not mix the finished dough intensively. Only when necessary and lightly5. The dough is ready to use when small, uniform small bubbles appear on it and it is actively growing. but do not hold the dough until it has risen to its maximum and a thick foam appears on top. 2. Now let's start cooking: There is no need to pour oil into the frying pan, just moisten a napkin well with oil and wipe the frying pan with it. I didn’t do this for every pancake (but it depends on the pan). Lubricate first, then as needed. 3. Pour the dough into the center (I don’t have a small frying pan, but this one worked well too). Gradually it begins to bubble. The pancakes fry quickly; remove them carefully with a spatula when the top stops sticking to your hand. We don't turn it over! 4. Removed the pancake, coated it with sauce, and so on - stack them on top of each other.)
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In principle, nothing complicated; it takes much longer to write a description than it takes to prepare!)
Bon appetit!
