Baghrir Moroccan Pancakes With Semolina Flour

Baghrir or beghrir is Moroccan pancakes for breakfast using semolina flour which is so easy to make from scratch at home & delicious! This easy homemade pancakes recipe using semolina flour and yeast is different from the usual pancakes in both texture and taste, but it is very delicious and soft in texture and very unique.

This popular & variety breakfast pancake which originated from Morocco, is known as baghrir or beghrir (traditional Moroccan style thousand hole pancakes) and it is quite thin and has a texture similar to crepes.

I have found that these semolina pancakes are much similar with South Indian kerala style rice pancakes (appam) in both texture and taste.

These are not very sweet pancakes as we don't use much sugar in this recipe, however they are mostly enjoyed with sweet syrups like a popular honey butter mixture.

Some versions of the recipe uses egg which imparts a light yellow color to the semolina pancakes, this one is an eggless version of the same semolina pancake recipe which is vegan too.

We only use one spoon of sugar for processing yeast in this easy homemade pancakes recipe using semolina flour and yeast, but they are so soft in texture and goes well with any sweet syrup or savory side dishes.

I liked them with this easy vegan potato curry but you can try with other favorite side dishes of yours like hummus or chickpeas curry or sweet syrups like maple syrup or whatever you like.

Another two suggestions for the side dish would be milk with sugar or coconut milk with sugar.

These are my suggestions, but traditionally they are served with a sweet honey butter mixture.

More semolina flour recipes:

Semolina Porridge Recipe

Indian Style Masala Upma Recipe

Semolina Flour Idli/Rava Idli For Easy Indian Breakfast

Sweet semolina Balls/Sooji Ladoo/Rava Ladoo Indian Sweet Recipe

Traditional semolina yeast pancakes from Morocco are delicious and soft pancakes made using fine semolina flour and yeast.

I noticed this recipe online due to its beautiful and very unique appearance with a lot of tiny holes in the surface.

In fact, this Moroccan semolina yeast pancake is also known as thousand holes pancake as they do have many number of tiny holes in the surface of the pancake.

The Moroccan semolina yeast pancakes is known by the name Baghrir or also known as thousand hole pancakes or crepes.

These yummy pancakes are also vegan semolina pancakes as we don't use any dairy products or egg in its preparation.

Of course this is vegan only if you don't use the popular honey butter dip suggested for this pancake, but there are so many other delicious vegan dips or toppings that can be used like pure fresh maple syrup or sweetened coconut milk.

The first time I made the semolina yeast pancakes they were yummy but there were not many holes in the pancake as they are supposed to be.

The pancakes were all really yummy and soft semolina pancakes with tiny holes in them.

The batter need to be really thin for holes to form, so if you feel the batter is thick due to some reason, you may not have added enough water required.

Also we use both yeast and baking powder in this recipe, which will help with the perfect texture of these semolina yeast pancakes.

I have tried this kind of semolina yeast pancakes only a few times yet, but I loved it as it was delicious and also because of the beautiful and unique look it has.

Many authentic recipes for baghrir calls for using a mix of semolina flour with a little all purpose flour, but I tried the recipe with just semolina flour and it turned out delicious.

However, by mixing a little all purpose flour the pancakes should be more soft and more delicious.

But this is still delicious with using just fine semolina flour and I think the key is blending the batter to really very smooth consistency.

So either you should use a mix of semolina flour and very little all purpose flour or just blend the fine semolina flour (if using only semolina flour) until you get a very smooth batter.

Another thing I noticed is to use low heat to cook the pancakes which help with creating beautiful holes in the pancake, as well as to not brown the pancake.

But you may also cook this in medium heat if you are pressed for time.

As you do it more and more, you get better at making these pancakes, and you will figure out which methods works best for you.

Serve the hot or warm pancakes with the traditional butter honey mixture or any sides or toppings you like.

My kids like fresh yogurt and pure honey to dip the yummy pancakes. 

And we love to enjoy them along with some yummy vegetarian curry that we usually make for chapathi.

Either way its yummy and I just love to enjoy them as it is even without any dips.

The texture is so soft, unique and delicious you will surely love it.

So here is how I made this semolina yeast pancakes or semolina crepes following this easy homemade pancakes recipe for baghrir.

How To Make Moroccan Pancakes Baghrir?

We need the following ingredients to make these delicious, soft vegan semolina pancakes.

Ingredients to make Moroccan semolina pancakes baghrir

2 cups Fine semolina flour (you can replace ¼ cup with all purpose flour)

2 teaspoons active dry yeast (1 package)

2 teaspoons baking powder

salt a pinch

1 teaspoon sugar

3 cups warm water

Step by step instructions

To make the batter

In one cup of warm water add the yeast and sugar, wait for few minutes so it forms a foam.

In a bowl, mix the remaining dry ingredients – flour, salt and baking powder.

Add this dry flour mixture along with the remaining 2 cups of warm water to a high speed blender and blend until very smooth.

Transfer this mixture back to the bowl.

Add the yeast foam to the flour mixture we just made and mix everything well.

Cover this mixture and let it sit for about half an hour at least.

After 30 minutes, the batter will look little foamy as it is slightly ferment with yeast mixture.

You can gently mix the batter with a spoon and the batter is ready to be used, now let us make the pancakes.

To make the semolina pancakes

Heat a nonstick pan or iron pan to make the semolina pancakes.

If you are using non stick pan, you don't have to grease the pan, I used an iron skillet to make the pancakes, so I had to grease the skillet lightly using vegetable oil.

When the pan is hot enough, add one ladle of batter on to the pan just like you do for usual pancakes, and I recommend using low heat to cook the pancakes.

A lot of tiny holes form on the surface and as the pancakes get cooked, the surface become soft yet dry.

You can see from the top of the pancake that its cooked.

This takes around 2 minutes usually in the beginning (as the pan gets little hotter you can make more quickly).

Now we don’t flip the pancakes as it is completely cooked by just cooking on one side.

Gently transfer the pancake from the pan and it is ready to serve!

You can cook all the pancakes the same way until all the batter is finished.

You can make small sized or medium sized pancakes as you wish, just adjust the amount of batter using to make the pancakes.

However using too much batter won’t give you good results as there maybe less number of holes and the pancakes may tend to break also if it is too large in size.

Small to medium sized pancakes are the best!

Serve the hot or warm moroccan pancakes baghrir with the traditional butter honey mixture or any sides or toppings you like.

More pictures from the preparation of Moroccan pancakes baghrir

Below you can get the recipe for Moroccan semolina pancakes baghrir in detail.