Moroccan table
Original traditionbreadFès-Meknès

Mbatten (Fessi Stuffed Bread)

Festive semolina bread from Fes, slit and stuffed with spiced ground meat, almonds, and eggs, then pan-fried until golden.

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Moroccan table
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Story and taste

Mbatten is the celebratory bread of Fes, made by the city's oldest families for weddings, circumcisions, and the feast of Moulay Idriss. Its name means 'stuffed' in old Fessi Arabic, and the technique slitting the dough, filling it, then pan- frying - is a direct inheritance from Andalusian cooks who arrived in 1492. The sweet-savory combination of spiced meat with cinnamon, sugar, and almonds is the signature of Fessi festive cooking: sweet to honor the joy of the occasion, savory to feed the guests. There is a Fes tradition that the eldest daughter must learn to make mbatten before her wedding, because the bread - like a marriage - must be both strong and tender, holding its filling without breaking apart. The diamond shape into which it is cut is the same shape used for every Fessi festive pastry.

Where to experience this

Mbatten (Fessi Stuffed Bread) belongs to the Fès-Meknès table. Taste it where its Andalusian-Moroccan heritage kitchen tradition lives, or fold it into an itinerary through the region.

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