What kinds of bread does Morocco have (khobz, batbout)?

In Morocco bread isn't a side — it's the cutlery, the plate-mopper and the soul of the meal, and you'll quickly learn that no table is complete without it. The everyday loaf is khobz: a round, slightly domed white or wholemeal bread with a sturdy crust and soft crumb, baked all over the country and, in many neighbourhoods, still carried by hand to a communal wood-fired oven (the ferran) to be baked alongside everyone else's. You tear it, you fold it, and you use a piece to pinch up tagine and scoop up salads — no fork required.

Batbout is the one travellers fall for fast. It's a soft, pillowy bread cooked on a griddle or in a dry pan rather than an oven, so it puffs up into a hollow pocket — the perfect little pouch to stuff with kefta, grilled vegetables, cheese or eggs for a quick sandwich. It's chewy, tender and slightly springy, somewhere between a pita and a crumpet, and street stalls love it for filled snacks.

Beyond those two there's a whole bakery to explore. Harcha is a pan-cooked semolina bread with a crisp, sandy crust and a cake-like inside, wonderful at breakfast with honey or cheese. Msemen is the flaky, folded, almost laminated square pancake, and baghrir the spongy, holey one. In the countryside you'll find heartier breads made with barley or cornmeal, denser and more rustic, and at celebrations a richer, slightly sweet mkhamer or anise-and-sesame loaf appears.

My favourite thing is to take guests past a neighbourhood ferran in the early morning, when trays of risen dough are being slid into the oven and the whole lane smells of warm bread. Buy a fresh round of khobz still hot from the fire, a handful of olives and a wedge of cheese, and you have one of the simplest, most satisfying snacks in Morocco — and a real glimpse of how daily life is organised around the loaf.