I made a couple of mistakes with this bread, but I was still really happy with the result. I think I'll be making this one again.

I think the biggest problem was that I made the loaves a little too wide. I think my rounds were probably in the 28-20cm range rather than the 13-15cm the recipe called for. This made it difficult to fit them on the peel and meant that they sort of merged as they rose. So I ended up with tear-apart loaves rather than four separate ones. I also forgot to brush them with milk like I was supposed to. So they didn't have the shiny crusts that the recipe described. They were still plenty tasty with a wonderful, soft, springy crumb that had a slight bite to it from the semonlina. Like I said, definitely worth revisiting!

Marrakech Tagine Bread

Slightly adapted from The Food of Morocco by Paula Wolfert

Ingredients

• 400g fine semolina flour (pasta flour)
• 150g all-purpose flour
• 1/2 Tbsp. instant yeast
• 1/2 Tbsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 Tbsp. sugar
• 1 3/4 c. warm water
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 Tbsp. milk or unsalted butter

Directions

1. Combine the flours, yeast, salt, and sugar and mix well.
2. Add the water and mix until a soft dough forms.
3. Pour in the olive oil and work it in.
4. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 5-10 minutes. You may need to add a little more flour to the surface as you work, but do so very sparingly.
5. Shape into a ball, return to bowl, cover, and let rest for 15-20 minutes.
6. Knock the dough back and divide it into four equal portions.
7. Round each portion, cover, and rest for ~5 minutes.
8. Flatten each ball slightly to form a 13-15cm round (5-6").
9. Put a generous sprinkling of semolina flour on a pizza peel or similar surface and place the dough rounds on it to proof.
10. Cover the dough with plastic wrap¹ and a tea towel and proof at room temperature for ~45 minutes.
11. Place a pizza stone on the bottom rack of the oven and preheat to 200°C (400°F).
12. Press the centre of each round with the palm of your hand to deflate it.
13. Prick the centre of each loaf with a fork.
14. Brush each loaf with milk or melted butter.
15. Slide the loaves onto the preheated pizza stone and bake at 200°C (400°F) for 20 minutes.
16. Transfer to a tea towel or wire rack to cool.

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Variations

Vegan Version

Ingredients

• 400g fine semolina flour (pasta flour)
• 150g all-purpose flour
• 1/2 Tbsp. instant yeast
• 1/2 Tbsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 Tbsp. raw sugar
• 1 3/4 c. warm water
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil

No shiny crust this way. But I didn't do the milk/butter glaze on my breads and I was still very happy with the results, so I don't think it's a big problem to skip it.

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¹ I actually used a large Ziploc bag. I didn't put the breads inside the bag. I just place it on top of them to stop them from sticking to the tea towel. ^Back