Berber Skillet Breads

A rather dense bread with a wonderful Umami smell and flavor. In addition to the pre-ferment, it only calls for ¼ tsp of yeast. Like Zosia, I did not need the pan lid to flip, but you do have to be careful, because I did crack one and it wasn’t as pretty. I used a barbequing fork both to pierce the bread and also move it around in the pan instead of shaking the skillet when cooking the second side. After each loaf I poured out the darkened semolina flour and cleaned the pan with a paper towel. My loaves look just like the ones on page 111. This was fabulous bread. I made a double batch. Once I had laid the loaves out for the 1 hour rise, I started the second one in the food processor. You may not want to stop at a double batch and you don’t have to as there is a lot of the pre-ferment.

This is wonderful bread, so light and airy and with the distinct flavour of semolina. The texture is tender and almost cake-like, not at all elastic/chewy.

I made the bread in a stand mixer instead of a food processor. The ingredients are very basic: semolina flour, yeast, water and salt. I didn’t make the pre-ferment, just used additional yeast and flour. The dough isn’t kneaded for very long “ in the processor, for only a few seconds, in the mixer, for a few minutes. After a brief rest, it’s shaped and left to rise for 1 hour.

The recipe doesn’t indicate how hot the pan/griddle should be for cooking the breads. I had it set slightly higher than medium, which turned out to be much too hot. A setting just below medium worked well. You’re instructed to sprinkle 1 tbsp of flour onto the pan before adding the bread. Unfortunately, whatever doesn’t cling to the bread ends up burning, so for the second bread, I just made sure it was well floured, brushing off the excess, before adding it to the pan. There are also elaborate directions for flipping it, which I thought unnecessary as the bread wasn’t particularly fragile and could be turned easily with a spatula. The photograph on the recipe page bears absolutely no resemblance to the skillet breads “ they look more like the breads pictured on the opposite page.

This bread was delicious and very easy to make. It was so good, the recipe wasn’t enough for 4 people. I’ll have to double it next time and make it with the garlic pre-ferment as well. I served this with the sautéed shrimp Casa Pepe.