Msemen — Moroccan Layered Flatbread
Squares of semolina dough stretched paper thin, folded with butter and pan-fried into flaky layers for breakfast with honey and tea.
- Prep
- 45 min
- Cook
- 25 min
- Total
- 1 hr 10 min
- Serves
- 10
- Difficulty
- Medium
Msemen is the Moroccan answer to the croissant, made in a frying pan instead of an oven. The dough is stretched until you can read through it, smeared with butter and semolina, folded into a square and cooked until the layers separate.
It looks like a technique that requires years. In practice it requires an oiled worktop, a relaxed dough, and the willingness to tear the first two.
Eaten hot with honey and butter for breakfast, or filled with onion and tomato khlii for something closer to lunch.
Ingredients
Makes 10 servings
For the dough
For folding and frying
Instructions
Make the dough
Mix the flour, semolina, salt, sugar and yeast in a bowl. Add the water gradually and knead for 10 minutes until you have a very soft, smooth, slightly tacky dough. It should be softer than bread dough.
Portion and rest
Divide into 10 balls. Roll each in oil, set them on an oiled tray and cover. Rest for 20 to 30 minutes — this is what lets the dough stretch without tearing.
Stretch
Oil your worktop generously. Take a ball and press it out from the centre with flat palms, then keep pushing outward until you have a thin, almost transparent circle roughly 40 cm across. Small holes are fine.
Butter and fold
Dot with soft butter and spread it over the surface, then sprinkle with semolina. Fold the left and right thirds into the centre to make a long strip, dot and sprinkle again, then fold the top and bottom in to make a square parcel.
Rest again
Set the squares on an oiled tray and leave for 10 minutes. Repeat with the remaining dough. Resting relaxes the gluten so they flatten easily.
Flatten and fry
Heat a heavy frying pan over a medium heat — no oil in the pan. Press each square out to about twice its size with oiled hands, then cook for 2 to 3 minutes a side, pressing with a spatula and turning several times, until golden and cooked through.
Serve
Stack them under a cloth as they come off the pan and serve hot with honey, butter, jam and mint tea.
Cook’s notes
- Work with oil, not flour. Flour on the worktop makes the dough grip and tear; oil lets it slide and stretch.
- Msemen freezes very well. Cook them, cool completely, stack with baking paper between and freeze. Reheat in a dry pan for 2 minutes a side.
- For savoury msemen, spread a cooked onion, tomato and paprika filling over the strip before the final fold.
Recipe information
- Prep time
- 45 min
- Cook time
- 25 min
- Total time
- 1 hr 10 min
- Servings
- 10
- Calories
- 245 kcal per serving
- Cuisine
- Moroccan
- Course
- Breakfast
- Difficulty
- Medium
- Keywords
- msemen, moroccan msemen recipe, moroccan layered flatbread, rghaif
Nutrition is an estimate per serving, calculated from the ingredient list. Values vary with brands, cuts and portion size.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between msemen and rghaif?
Why did my msemen come out hard?
Can I make the dough the night before?
More Moroccan recipes
Khobz — Everyday Moroccan Bread
Round semolina and flour loaves baked flat and soft, the bread used as a fork at every Moroccan meal.
Baghrir — Moroccan Thousand-Hole Pancakes
Light semolina pancakes cooked on one side only, covered in tiny holes that soak up melted butter and honey.
Moroccan Avocado Smoothie — Jus d'Avocat
The thick, cold avocado and milk drink sold at every Moroccan juice bar, sweetened with dates and dusted with cinnamon.
Moroccan Vegetable Tagine with Chickpeas
Root vegetables, chickpeas and apricots layered in a tagine with ginger, turmeric and preserved lemon, cooked until the sauce thickens around them.