Traditional Moroccan Breakfast Ideas

Breakfast in Morocco is a spread rather than a plate. Everything arrives at once — breads, a pot of tea, small dishes of honey, butter, oil, cheese and jam — and people build what they want from it.

The weekday version

On a working morning it is modest: yesterday's khobz with olive oil and a sprinkle of cumin or thyme, olives, a triangle of soft cheese, coffee or mint tea. Fifteen minutes, nothing cooked.

The weekend version

Fridays and weekends bring the breads out. This is where the Moroccan breakfast earns its reputation.

Msemen

Square, folded, pan-fried flatbread with visible layers. Eaten hot, torn and dipped into honey mixed with melted butter.

Baghrir

Thousand-hole semolina pancakes, cooked on one side only. The holes exist to hold the honey-butter syrup.

Harcha

A semolina pan bread with a sandy, crisp crust, split and filled with cheese or jam. The quickest of the three.

Khobz and batbout

Plain round bread and its pan-cooked cousin, both served with everything else on the table.

What goes on the bread

• Honey, ideally a dark one, mixed with melted butter into a warm syrup.
• Amlou — a thick spread of roasted almonds, argan oil and honey from the Souss region. The Moroccan answer to nut butter.
• Olive oil, on its own or with cumin and salt for dipping.
• Soft white cheese, olives, apricot or fig jam.
• Khlii — preserved beef, fried with eggs in a small dish and eaten straight from the pan.

What people drink

Mint tea, or coffee. Nous nous — half espresso, half hot milk — is the café standard. In the countryside, buttermilk (lben) appears alongside.

A weekend breakfast you can actually manage

1. The night before: make a batch of msemen dough, shape and fold the squares, and refrigerate them on an oiled tray.
2. The night before: blend the baghrir batter only if you plan to serve them; otherwise skip — the batter is best made fresh.
3. In the morning: put the tea on, fry the msemen in a dry pan while the baghrir batter rises.
4. Lay everything on the table at once — honey and butter warmed together, olives, cheese, jam, oil.
5. Serve the tea from a height, and refill twice.