ouadnine el kadi rghaifs (the judge's ears)

Ingredients for about 40 rghaIfs :

- 500 g (1 lb 2 oz) of flour

Preparation: 

Shape about 40 balls of dough the size of an apricot and put on the slightly oiled table or “gsââ”.

Take the first ball, stretch it out and flatten it with lightly oiled finger tips. Stretch it both lengthways and sideways so as to make a square layer of pastry the thickness of a sheet of paper. Fold this layer in 3, folding one side over the other and fold the rectangle thus obtained in 3 again, to form a square 10cm (4”), Repeat this operation with all the balls of dough, in the order in which they were shaped, oiling the table and finger tips fairly often.

to cook:

Place the frying pan on a moderate heat. Take the first square of pastry and stretch it out in both directions until it is double in size. Lay out flat in the lightly oiled pan. Cook on both sides and repeat this operation with all the little squares of pastry.

The Rghaifs are normally cooked in an earthenware pan over charcoal but they can just as well be cooked in a thick iron pan on a gas or electric cooker over a moderate heat. Just before serving, melt 100 g (4 oz) of butter in the pan. Put in a dish close at hand. Quickly dip the first pancake in this butter, put on a dish and put on top a pancake which has not been dipped in butter.

Continue this operation, placing alternately a buttered pancake on top of a plain one. Put this pile of pancakes back in the frying pan, without any butter, to re-heat, turning the pile over once.

Then spread the pancakes out on a. dish containing caster sugar and cinnamon and serve at once. The pancakes can also be served as they are, either with sugar or hot honey.