Batbout
A Moroccan bread that never sees an oven — it cooks on a dry pan in minutes. The pocket forms exactly as it does in pita: steam suddenly forces the bread apart from within. There are two conditions: the round must be thin and even, and the pan very hot. Uneven thickness means the steam escapes at the thin spot and the bread stays flat.
Your own work in that: 15 min.
- Dough 15 min
- Proving 60 min
- Shaping 15 min
- Resting 30 min
- Cooking 25 min
Step by step
0 / 7 doneMix the semolina with the flour
Combine the semolina, flour, yeast, sugar and salt, pour in the water and oil and knead 10 minutes. The dough should be soft and slightly tacky. Semolina gives batbout its faint grain and is what separates it from ordinary pita.
Ingredients: 250 g semolina · 250 g plain flour · 320 ml water · 7 g dried yeast · 1 tsp sugar · 1½ tsp salt · 2 tbsp oil
Soft and slightly tacky — a firm dough will not puff.Prove for an hour
Cover and leave 60 minutes, until doubled. The dough must be full of gas, because that gas plus steam is what forces the bread open on the pan — an under-proved dough simply stays flat.
Ingredients: 250 g semolina · 250 g plain flour · 320 ml water · 7 g dried yeast · 1 tsp sugar · 1½ tsp salt · 2 tbsp oil
Divide and flatten into thin rounds
Divide into 10 balls and flatten each by hand into a 5 mm round of even thickness across its whole face. Dust with semolina rather than flour — semolina does not absorb and helps the rounds slide off the worktop.
Ingredients: 50 g semolina
Even thickness — steam escapes at any thin spot.Rest under a cloth for half an hour
Lay the rounds on a semolina-dusted cloth, cover with another and leave 30 minutes. Resting relaxes the gluten, so the bread stretches on the pan instead of splitting at the point of greatest tension.
Ingredients: 250 g semolina · 250 g plain flour · 320 ml water · 7 g dried yeast · 1 tsp sugar · 1½ tsp salt · 2 tbsp oil
Heat the pan hard
Heat a dry, heavy pan over medium-high heat for 5 minutes. Too cool a pan is the commonest cause of a flat batbout — the water in the dough has to turn to steam instantly, not gradually.
Ingredients: 250 g semolina · 250 g plain flour · 320 ml water · 7 g dried yeast · 1 tsp sugar · 1½ tsp salt · 2 tbsp oil
Cook two minutes a side, pressing lightly
Cook the rounds in batches, one or two at a time, 2 minutes a side — all of them take about 25 minutes in total. Halfway through each one, press it gently with a folded cloth to spread the heat. It balloons within seconds — the sign the pocket has formed.
Ingredients: 250 g semolina · 250 g plain flour · 320 ml water · 7 g dried yeast · 1 tsp sugar · 1½ tsp salt · 2 tbsp oil
A balloon within seconds — the pocket is there.Keep them under a cloth
Stack the finished breads one on top of another under a cloth. Steam from one softens the next and the bread stays pliable. Cooled on a rack they would be dry and hard — batbout should be soft, not crisp.
Ingredients: 250 g semolina · 250 g plain flour · 320 ml water · 7 g dried yeast · 1 tsp sugar · 1½ tsp salt · 2 tbsp oil
Before you start
What it is for
The pocket makes batbout the ideal bread for stuffing — in Morocco it is filled with salad, tuna, kefta or vegetables from a tagine. Without a pocket it is still a good bread for mopping up sauces.
When it does not puff
Three causes, in order of likelihood: the pan is too cool, the round too thick, the dough under-proved. Test the pan with a drop of water — it should dance and vanish in a second.
Freezing
Batbout freezes excellently, interleaved with paper. Reheat straight from frozen on a dry pan for a minute a side, or sprinkled with water in the oven — it comes back close to fresh.
