Saturday 1 March 2014

Rgaïf / Moroccan flat breads - BBB February 2014

The Bread Baking Babes celebrate their 6th anniversary this month: congratulations ladies!
Babe Lien from Notitie van Lien chose this month's recipe for the Babes and for us Buddies to bake along. I had never heard of rgaïf before, but any flat bread is a welcome baking challenge.
Apparently rgaïf are eaten at any time of the day, either sweet or savoury, filled or plain. Since there appeared to be some red pepper houmous and garlic dip in the fridge I decided to use up some homemade garlic herb butter to make my rgaïf into a savoury nibble to go with pre dinner drinks ...

Great idea!

After reading Liens' recipe and posts from the other Babes and some Buddies I took in the following suggestions:
- use a mixture of strong bread flour and plain flour
- up the amount of salt
- roll/flatten the dough as thinly as possible
- sprinkle semolina in between layers
- flatten the rgaïf again before frying
- fry on medium heat to make sure the inside is cooked
- the dough and shaped rgaïf -well covered- will keep in the fridge for hours or even overnight to use/finish the next day


I ended up using more water, salt and some olive oil in the dough than stated in the original recipe. Please have look at the original recipe (adapted from: "Vrijdag couscousdag" by R. Ahali) here.

I'm looking forward to make a sweet version of these flat breads with a sugar/cinnamon, jam or honey/almond filling.


MY RECIPE (makes 12)

Dough:
500 gr flour (half-half strong bread flour and plain flour)
5 gr instant yeast
1 tsp salt
300 gr water
10 gr olive oil
Extra's:
+ (garlic herb) butter to spread inside
+ semolina to sprinkle the layers
+ extra olive oil to coat dough and to fry the rgaïf

Mix all dough ingredients by hand (20 mins.) or in a bread maker. I used the first 20 mins. of the pizza program of my bread maker. The dough should be very elastic and not sticky at all.

Divide the dough into 12 balls. Coat every ball with a little olive oil and cover. Let rest for about 5 mins. Now -one at a time- flatten the dough balls and roll or stretch them out as thinly as possible. Using a little olive oil on your worktop makes this fairly easy.

Spread some garlic herb butter over the dough, sprinkle lightly with semolina and fold in three. Flatten with your hands, turn 90 degrees and fold in three again.

The rgaïf are ready for frying now, or you can keep them in the fridge, covered with oiled cling film to fry at a later time.











Put a frying pan over medium heat. Flatten the rgaïf again with your hands, spread a little olive oil on both sides and fry for about 5-7 mins. on one side, turn over and fry for another 5-7 mins.

Enjoy warm with whatever you like!







3 comments:

  1. They are beautiful Claartje! Yes all the tips you incorperated in the recipe are good ones, The Buddies have the advantage that the recipe has been baked several times :). I certainly keep these in mind the next time. RIght on time the 29th of the month :D

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  2. Pretty marvelous versatile bread aren't they! and yours do look grand. It is great to get some tips before you bake isn't it.
    Yes warm with just about anything you like, I am sure you'll enjoy the cinnamon sweet.

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  3. ...red pepper hummus...garlic dip... how perfect!

    As usual, your bread looks wonderful Many thanks for baking with us!

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