Msemen
Msemen is layered dough without a butter block and without a fridge — flaky layers like those in puff pastry, achieved by stretching dough to a translucent sheet, oiling it and folding. The secret is semolina scattered between the layers: its grains hold the sheets of dough apart and stop them fusing on the pan.
Your own work in that: 25 min.
- Dough 15 min
- Resting 30 min
- Stretching and folding 25 min
- Second rest 15 min
- Cooking 20 min
Step by step
0 / 7 doneKnead the dough for ten minutes
Mix the flour, semolina, salt and sugar, add the warm water and knead for 10 minutes, until very soft and elastic, almost tacky. It has to stretch until translucent — a firm dough tears at the first pull.
Ingredients: 350 g plain flour · 150 g semolina · 320 ml water · 8 g salt · 1 tsp sugar
Divide into balls and coat in oil
Divide into 8 balls, set them on an oiled tray and roll each in oil. Cover and rest 30 minutes. The oil stops them drying out, and during the rest the gluten relaxes so the dough stretches more easily.
Ingredients: 120 ml oil · 60 g butter · 80 g semolina
Stretch a ball into a translucent sheet
Flatten a ball on a generously oiled worktop and stretch it with your hands from the centre outwards, until you have a sheet you can see the worktop through. Do not use a rolling pin. A tear here or there does not matter — the holes disappear in the folding.
Ingredients: 120 ml oil · 60 g butter · 80 g semolina
The worktop shows through — only then start folding.Scatter semolina and fold into an envelope
Drizzle the sheet with oil and melted butter and scatter semolina evenly over it. Fold the sides in, then the top and bottom, forming a square envelope. The semolina is the key: its grains separate the layers and are what makes the bread flake apart.
Ingredients: 120 ml oil · 60 g butter · 80 g semolina
Semolina between the layers holds the sheets apart.Rest the squares for a quarter of an hour
Set the folded squares on an oiled tray and leave 15 minutes. The gluten stretched during shaping has to relax, or they cannot be flattened without tearing the layers apart.
Ingredients: 120 ml oil · 60 g butter · 80 g semolina
Flatten and cook over medium heat
Press each square out to about 5 mm thick and cook over medium heat on a lightly oiled pan, 2 minutes a side, pressing with a spatula. The layers begin to separate and the bread puffs unevenly — as it should. Cook one or two at a time — all eight take about 20 minutes in total.
Ingredients: 120 ml oil · 60 g butter · 80 g semolina
Layers separating, the bread puffing unevenly.Serve hot with honey and butter
Serve straight from the pan, with honey and a knob of butter. In Morocco msemen is eaten for breakfast or an afternoon snack, usually with mint tea. Cooled it hardens — reheat on a dry pan, about 30 seconds a side.
Ingredients: 100 g honey · 40 g butter
Before you start
The stuffed version
Msemen mahchi uses the same technique with a filling of onion, tomato and spices spread on the sheet before folding. The layers are less distinct, but the bread becomes a meal in itself.
Freezing
Layer the folded, uncooked squares with paper and freeze. Cook from frozen with an extra minute a side. It is the best route to fresh msemen without forty-five minutes of work every morning.
Be generous with the oil
The stretching happens on oil, not flour. Flour dries the dough and makes it tear; oil lets it slide and stretch thin. It is the one stage where excess fat is an advantage.
