Batbout is a pan-fried Moroccan flat bread, it’s also called Mekhmar or Mkhamer in other houses.

Today’s batbout recipe is the one I make when I’m not in a hurry. It requires time to proof so basically you can vacate to your daily tasks at that time. Why I do that? It’s as if you ask about the diference between a a good 36 hours baguette and a 3 hours one: The difference is huge in taste, in texture and in the “shelf life”.

My batbout with semolina flour, white  and corn flour (yellow not cornstarch). this is the standard thickness of large batbout (they come even larger)

I can never have enough batbout in my freezer. I have them in small and medium size. They’re handy for quick sandwiches, mini-pizza (yes) or just to accompany a tagine or even a curry.

Using split batbout to make quick pizza

Mini-batbouts with rye, whole wheat and white flour

• A few hours before mixing the bread dough, take the old one from the fridge and let it come back to room temperature for a few hours. Keep it covered at all times.
• Cut it into cubes and add 1/4 of the warm water intended for this recipe to slightly liquefy this old dough. Use a whisk or just your fingers to perform this step.
• If you don’t have an old dough, make a sort of poolish: Mix 170 g of flour with 170 ml of water and the yeast. Stir to combine and set aside in a covered container and at room temperature for 6 to 12 hours.
  
  

• Mix al dried ingredients, the liquified old dough, 2/3 of the liquid needed for the recipe and proceed the same way as making any bread with yeast. You need to knead the dough very well. A food processor can be used. Again, do not add all the water in one go because flours have different absorption ratios. add it as you go and once the previous liquid added has been absorbed.
• The dough needs to be soft and elastic.
• Once the dough has been kneaded, oil your hands, scrape off all the dough and form a dough ball. Place it in a bowl. cover and leave it to double in size.

The dough is tacky but once you oil your hands it will be easy to handle. 1/ dough after kneading, 2/ after proofing, 3/ after degazing

Shaping

Tip: if the bread is for the same day, you can roll it in the fine semolina flour. If you want to keep it outside a freezer for a few days, just handle the sticky dough with olive oil both in your hands as well as the surface.

Rolling the dough and flattening it to make big batbout. Beware that using that much semolina flour makes a very crispy and dry crust as opposite to using oiled hands and surface which gives a soft batbout with a fine crust. Both options are good depending on preferences.

• Flatten the dough to 2-3 mm thick while giving it a 1/4 turn at each time. This way you will make sure it won’t stick at the bottom (a batbout spoiler) but also to get a nice round-shape.
• Place all the flattened mkhamer over a dusted kitchen towel and cover with a couple of towels. Let them proof for another 30 min.
  
  

• Over medium heat, slightly heat a heavy pan/griddle. Grease it with a few drops of oils and start pan-frying the first mekhmar. Adding these drops of oil is totally optional but it gives those “fried” spots which makes the whole batbout tastes even better. Actually, some regions make the difference between batbout and makhmar with this addition of oil in the pan; It is batbout if no oil has been added, it will be mkhamer if it’s the other case.
• Each batbout relatively takes up to 2 min by side (make sure you flip every 20 seconds). They’re done when they look like this..

A thin batbout, “breathing” the steam out after I opened it

Thick batbout with a crispy crust and pillowy inside. I personally do not like very thick batbout so this one is just about right.