Moroccan bread is easy to make, but it does require love and pride to come out just right. The bread has a nice hard crust on the outside, and tastes great with any meal, butter and jelly, or just by itself. Don’t expect it to last long in your house, so make plenty.



My grandmother, “Meema,” was always the first one in our family to get up in the morning. She would do her morning prayers, have her coffee, and then begin one of the most important rituals in every Moroccan household—the making of the daily bread. Not only is freshly-baked bread a staple of Moroccan life; it actually replaces the use of a fork or spoon in many dishes.

In our kitchen, there was a small loft area with a hand-made wooden ladder for access. I remember how the bright Moroccan sun would filter into the kitchen from the three windows in the loft. The loft was a very special place because everything to do with our family’s bread happened there. Even though she was old and frail, Meema would carefully climb the ladder up to the loft and sit on a large quilted cushion that she had hand-made. In the loft, she would be surrounded by a big cloth bag of flour, a pitcher of warm water, a jug of oil, bowls containing sugar and salt, and an old coffee tin that contained dry yeast. As a young girl, I used to climb the ladder and watch her making the bread. Meema didn’t like to be disturbed when making bread, so I had to be very quiet and sit on the edge of the loft. I loved watching her because she put her soul into it. She would carefully shape the dough with her weathered hands into flat, round pie-size pieces. To me, she was the best bread maker of all time and I could watch her for as long as she made the bread.

When Meema finished, she would wrap the individual rounds of dough with white linen that had blue, red, and green stitching on the edges. She would also make sure our family symbol was on the bread, which was a curved “D” for our family’s last name. The linen and symbol were different for each family, so that the bread would not be lost at the public bakery with other families’ breads. Meema would let the dough rounds rise until the time when my sister Bouchera would take it to the public bakery. The public bakeries would take in the bread and cook it until golden brown. The neighborhood bakeries were an important part of Moroccan life.

Around mid-morning, people, especially children, would begin their walk to the public bakery along the narrow, cobblestone streets. It was almost like a parade, because people would be carrying the linen-wrapped bread in wood trays on their heads. When arriving at the public bakery, the families would make sure to tell the boy handling the breads to take extra care of their bread. Just before Noon, when the biggest meal of the day is served, the bread would be ready for pick up. Every so often, some bread would go to the wrong house. When the mother or grandmother of that family found out she got some one else’s bread, that would be a day to remember. The mother or grandmother would run back to the public bakery, demand her bread back and threaten the bakers that she would never again use their bakery.

Every day I looked forward to my grandmother’s bread. In fact, to this day, when I make my Moroccan bread in Meema’s tradition, I can picture her sitting in the loft as the sun filtered in. While you probably don’t have public bakeries in your neighborhood, I encourage to you to take my Meema’s bread recipe and make it your own. It can be come a tradition and fond memory for your family as well.

Ingredients

• 5 cups white flour
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 tablespoons dry yeast
• 1 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 cup warm water
• 1/2 cup of flour for kneading

Directions

• Dust one large baking sheet with flour
• In a large bowl, add sugar, salt, and, flour. Mix well. Make a well in the center of the mix and then add the yeast and warm water to the well.
• Let the yeast dissolve in the warm water for one minute and then add oil into the yeast / water mixture.
• Gradually mix the entire content of the bowl with your hands until all ingredients are well blended.
• Remove the dough from the bowl and place it on a large surface that has been dusted with flour. Begin kneading with your hands for about 15 minutes. Add water or flour as needed to ensure that the dough is soft and pliable.
• Divide the dough in half, and shape each portion into a smooth circular mound. Place the dough onto the baking sheet and cover with a clean hand towel. Allow the dough to rest for 1 hour at room temperature.
• After the dough has rested, use the palm of your hand to flatten the dough into circles about 1/4" thick. Cover the dough again with the hand towel, and let it rest again for another hour. When ready, the dough will spring back when pressed lightly with a finger.
• Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
• When the dough is ready, score the surface with a knife or poke it with a fork in several places. You won’t need to worry about getting your dough mixed up with another family’s, but you may want to come up with a design for scoring your dough that is unique and special to your family.
• Bake for 20 minutes or until the bread is golden.
• Serves 6 to 8.