When I first saw the theme for this month’s Bread Bakers, I knew what to make. I have been making a list of flat breads to try and this Malooga was also in the list. Being an yeasted flat bread I chose it right away after reading about the theme. This month’s host Sonia selected the theme Flat breads with starter or yeast. If you are a regular reader of my blog, you might know about my love for breads. I bake a bread whenever I get a chance and that is why I joined Bread Bakers, so that I bake at least a bread in a month.
Coming to the recipe, this is an Yemeni bread and I saw only one recipe in the whole blog world. I know that with a little bit of digging I can find few more, and I did find a recipe in Arabic in YouTube. I don’t know Arabic, but Google translate helped me with understanding what I saw. I got two recipes, one with flour and one with a combination of semolina and flour. Look at the bread. It has a nice crispy crust and soft layered crumb which was fabulous.
Another interesting fact I learnt is that in Yemeni cuisine, a type of clarified butter called as semn is used in baking. It is nothing but ghee which is darker in shade and more concentrated in flavour. As I made just one bread, I made some semn with a tablespoon and a half of ghee. This is why I love challenges, we get to know a lot about cuisines around the world. I hope you will enjoy this bread as much as I enjoyed making and my daughter enjoyed relishing. It is such a butter rich flaky bread which is just amazing. You can either relish it as it is hot out of oven or you can make a savoury side and relish it with some beans dish, spiced buttermilk and scrambled eggs as they do in Yemen ( I read about this in a comment in the original recipe).
This is semn (browned clarified butter) used in Yemeni Cuisine
Recipe Sources : Yemircan, Tried and True Eats
Makes one Bread
Ingredients:
All Purpose Flour/ Maida – 1 cup
Semolina / Rava – 1/2 cup
Instant Yeast – 1/2 tsp
Sugar – 1/2 tsp
Salt – 3/4 tsp
Milk – 1/2 cup
Water – 1/4 cup
Ghee – 1 + 1/2 tbs
Procedure:
In a pan take ghee and heat it on low flame until it changes colour to dark brown.
Immediately transfer to another bowl, else the colour will darken with the heat of the pan. Set aside to cool.
In a large bowl mix all the dry ingredients.
Add milk and water and knead to form a soft and slightly sticky dough.
Coat the dough with oil, cover and set aside until double.
Preheat oven to 225°C.
Take the dough on to the counter, sprinkle some flour and roll it into a thin rectangle.
Apply semn all over and sprinkle some black sesame seeds.
Now fold the rectangle into two.
Apply semn and fold it again into half.
Now apply semn and bring all the sides to the centre and pinch them together to form a ball.
Turn it seam side down and place it on a plate and cover.
Let it rest for five minutes.
Now grease a baking tray, place the dough on it and pat to form a huge flat disc.
Brush it with semn and sprinkle some black sesame seeds on top.
Bake on lower rack until the bread puffs up. Now shift the tray to top rack and bake until golden brown.
Remove from oven and serve it hot.

Malooga - Yemeni Bread
Ingredients
- All Purpose Flour / Maida - 1 cup
- Semolina / Rava - 1/2 cup
- Instant Yeast - 1/2 tsp
- Sugar - 1/2 tsp
- Salt - 3/4 tsp
- Milk - 1/2 cup
- Water - 1/4 cup
- Ghee - 1 + 1/2 tbs
Instructions
- In a pan take ghee and heat it on low flame until it changes colour to dark brown.
- Immediately transfer to another bowl, else the colour will darken with the heat of the pan. Set aside to cool.
- In a large bowl mix all the dry ingredients.
- Add milk and water and knead to form a soft and slightly sticky dough.
- Coat the dough with oil, cover and set aside until double.
- Preheat oven to 225°C.
- Take the dough on to the counter, sprinkle some flour and roll it into a thin rectangle.
- Apply semn all over and sprinkle some black sesame seeds.
- Now fold the rectangle into two.
- Apply semn and fold it again into half.
- Now apply semn and bring all the sides to the centre and pinch them together to form a ball.
- Turn it seam side down and place it on a plate and cover.
- Let it rest for five minutes.
- Now grease a baking tray, place the dough on it and pat to form a huge flat disc.
- Brush it with semn and sprinkle some black sesame seeds on top.
- Bake on lower rack until the bread puffs up. Now shift the tray to top rack and bake until golden brown.
- Remove from oven and serve it hot.
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#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page.
We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.
I love, love, love the color of that browned ghee! I’ll bet that’s what sets this flatbread apart from others. Beautiful!
I love how the folding method created all of those layers. This sounds seriously delicious! I can’t wait to try it.
This looks absolutely delicious and your step by step recipe will be a great help in making it.
WOW, such a flaky and buttery bread that is Gayathri. Great choice for Bread bakers theme. That is a very interesting way to form a bread. Thank you for the step-by-step photos — I can see how the layers form. Also that brown butter must have added so much flavor to the bread.