My husband and I visited Fes, Morocco last June. Of course I swooned over the food. At breakfast, without ordering them, these beautiful holey pancakes appeared in front of me, served with butter and honey, shown below. They were light and delicious. After getting home, I vowed to make these pancakes, called baghrir.
The recipe I used is from a Turkish food blog called A Kitchen in Istanbul. If you are interested in Turkish food or already love it, Vidar Bergum’s blog is for you.
After I decided to make baghrir and use this recipe, my exceptional and creative cook and virtual friend David published his recipe at his wonderful blog Cocoa and Lavender. He and his husband had just spent 3 weeks in Morocco. How lovely.
David’s pancakes look just like Bergum’s, but unfortunately mine did not. The pancake itself is the same but I followed the directions to the T and mine ended up with giant holes! I even tried another heat setting. Nonetheless, they are delicious.
Baghrir
printable recipe below
1 cup fine semolina
Scant 1/2 cup plain all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp instant dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
17 ounces lukewarm water
2 tsp baking powder
A little butter, for greasing the pan
Honey butter (optional)
1 ounce honey
1 ounce butter
Add the semolina, flour, sugar, yeast, salt and water in a blender. Blend until the batter is completely smooth, 4–5 minutes. Pour into a jug and stir in the baking powder. Leave for 30 minutes.
What I didn’t think about is how the batter is bubbling because of the two leavening agents. So, it overflowed my jug!
Heat a non-stick frying pan over medium. Lightly brush with butter. Pour circles of batter into the pan. You may make them as large or small as you wish — I make three at a time in my 11” pan. Cook until the surface is set and riddled with holes, 1–2 minutes.
Don’t flip the pancakes! Transfer to a rack. Repeat with the remaining batter, greasing minimally and only if needed.
To make the honey butter, gently melt the honey and butter together in a small saucepan set over low heat. Serve the pancakes warm with the honey butter on the side. (I served them separately which was my experience in Morocco.)
Note: don’t stack pancakes until they’re cooled off. Also, don’t make batter ahead of time – it will taste too fermented.
Baghrir
1 cup fine semolina
Scant 1/2 cup plain all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp instant dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
1.7 ounces lukewarm water
2 tsp baking powder
A little butter, for greasing the pan
Honey butter (optional)
1 ounce honey
1 ounce butter
Add the semolina, flour, sugar, yeast, salt and water in a blender. Blend until the batter is completely smooth, 4–5 minutes. Pour into a jug and stir in the baking powder. Leave for 30 minutes.
Heat a non-stick frying pan over medium. Lightly brush with butter. Pour circles of batter into the pan. You may make them as large or small as you wish—I make three at a time in my 28 cm (11 in) pan. Cook until the surface is set and riddled with holes, 1–2 minutes. Don’t flip the pancakes! Transfer to a rack. Repeat with the remaining batter, greasing minimally and only if needed.
To make the honey butter, gently melt the honey and butter together in a small saucepan set over low heat.
Serve the pancakes warm with the honey butter on the side.