A Moroccan style pancakes called Baghrir – which means “a thousand holes”…
I am really in a very excited mood. It is actually a mix of happiness and anxiety. InShaAllah tonight we are flying for the first time to US. We as a family have never travelled much. We go home most of the summer holidays on vacation, and we hardly go around sight seeing in Kerala, forget about moving out of the state. I have gone to Oman a few times but they were very hurried up trips and I just wish we had never even gone, since we hardly got to see much around. I went with my parents and girls for Umrah in February 2014 and that is the only visit I have had to Saudi Arabia. Apart from these, I have no other international stamp on my passport. I don’t know if it is a good thing or bad, but with the progress of social media and the millenials splurging their savings on making trips to any country that catches their fancy for their experiences, it is quite easy to feel dejected and unhappy about how your life is.
HD isn’t someone who likes to travel and lot of my requests have fallen into deaf ears, which I really didn’t mind because the heart always would choose going home to being with parents over spending the same amount of money on a trip abroad for a week. Last year, just before the pandemic, we got our US visas stamped because HD suddenly felt like it. Hehe… Alhamdulillah, since we did it that time, this time’s summer plans got sorted out. There is no way of going home with any surety of coming back on time for the next school term to begin. Since I am jobless, I wouldn’t get another chance like this to go and stay with her for a long time. This may be our first and last visit and I am so looking forward to it – to spend time with my sister, whom I haven’t spend much time ever since she got married, to see a different world other than the UAE and Kerala sights my eyes are used to seeing… I just can’t wait… 🙂
I guess I can leave my personal tales aside and come back to the recipe for the day. I discovered this Arab version of yeasted pancakes called Beghrir during a very casual browsing for new and interesting breakfast recipes. I love any form of pancakes especially the classic ones, but my girls are more traditional and prefer our Malabar Pola anytime. Even the Emiratis have their own version of pancakes. Beghrir is a Moroccan breakfast recipe and what differentiates it from the other pancake recipes is the use of semolina as its main flour and yeast as the leavening agent. This interesting pancake is also called as “the thousand hole pancake” due to the amount of holes that generates on its surface when it starts cooking.
I love that this recipe is a blender version, ie. you add all your ingredients into a blender and blend till done. The batter is then allowed to rest for sometime for the yeast to activate and then cooked on a pan without any oil or butter. These sponge like pancakes are usually served with a honey butter dip, the recipe of which is also included below. When the honey butter is drizzled over the pancakes, it disappears into those holes making it really delicious. Since I love pancakes, I loved this one too. Especially when it was taken off the pan, it tastes really amazing. Since the pancake in itself isn’t that sweet, I am quite sure that this would be amazing with a non-vegetarian gravy as well, especially because of its soaking capacity. HD commented the same while he enjoyed his pancakes with the honey butter.
Baghrir/ Beghrir ~ Moroccan Semolina Pancakes
Ingredients
- 1 cup semolina ground coarsely
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 tbsp instant yeast
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tbsp sugar
- A pinch of salt
- 2 cups warm water more, if needed
FOR HONEY BUTTER
- 1/4 cup honey
- 25 gm butter
- 2 tbsp water
- A dash of rose water or orange blossom water optional
Instructions
- Combine all the ingredients in a blender and blend till mixture is smooth.
- Pour into a pan and allow it to rest for 30 minutes. Add more water to make the batter of pourable consistency - not as thick as pancake batter but not too thin too.
- Heat a pan. Pour half cup batter into the hot pan. The batter will spread and shape itself up. Cook for around 3 minutes till bubbles form all over and the top looks done.
- Repeat till the rest of the batter is done.
- To make the honey butter, add all ingredients except the flavoring in a small saucepan and cook on low flame till all melted and combined. Switch off and add the flavoring, if using. Serve with the beghrir.
Notes
InShaAllah, our flight is tomorrow early morning. I am not really sure if I will be able to blog from my sister’s home, which I think I should be given I may get some free time in between, just like how I managed a few posts in the month of March this year while I was back home. I have no worries since I have a lot of drafts to keep my blog fed if I really want to. Being the insistent blogger I am, I am not fond of taking long breaks in posting as well. I hope I can, however if I can’t, you all know there is enough content to go through, discover and try some new recipes and share your feedback with me. I am hoping to be active on my Instagram handle, so do stay with me to see my stay highlights… 🙂
Thanks for sharing this lovely recipe. Just a little correction, beghrir is also popular in Algeria and, therefore, not specifically Moroccan.
Thank you so much for your lovely comments, Rachid… A lot of food are shared among countries with minimal changes… Appreciate your remarks…