Algerian · Side
Khobz el Dar (Algerian Semolina Bread)
About this recipe
Algerian cooking shares the Maghreb tradition of slow-cooked tagines, couscous, and spice blends (cumin, coriander, paprika), with French colonial influences visible in baked goods and a few savoury dishes.
As a side dish, Khobz el Dar (Algerian Semolina Bread) is designed to support a main course rather than command attention — built around vegetables, grains, or pulses with seasoning that lifts rather than dominates.
Set your servings in the scaler above and every line of the recipe rewrites itself with smart fractions and unit promotion. Open Cook Mode to step through it hands-free with timers running.
Recipe data is sourced from TheMealDB's open community database; ScaleRecipe handles the curation, the scaling math, the editorial commentary, and the conversion utilities woven into each page.
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Method
- Mix 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons semolina, 2 tablespoons sesame seeds, sugar, yeast, and salt together in a large bowl. Whisk in oil, egg, and egg white. Stir in warm milk slowly until a liquid dough forms.
- Cover the bowl with a plate or plastic wrap; let stand at room temperature until frothy, about 1 hour.
- Stir in 2 3/4 cups flour with a wooden spoon until a sticky dough forms. Cover again and allow to rest for 30 minutes.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a baking mat.
- Sprinkle 1 tablespoon flour over the dough and your hands. Mix dough, adding flour as needed, 1 tablespoon at a time, until it pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Shape into a round loaf and place on the prepared baking sheet. Cover loosely with a towel and let rise for 1 hour in a warm place until loaf doubles in volume.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
- Beat egg yolk and water in a bowl with a fork; brush over the entire surface of the loaf. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon sesame seeds on top.
- Bake in the preheated oven until loaf is golden brown, about 20 to 25 minutes.
Cooking notes
Scaling works best when you weigh ingredients rather than measure by volume — small differences in packing can compound at higher multipliers.
For volume-to-weight conversions of any ingredient — flour, sugar, butter, salts — use the ingredient converter. To translate the recipe's oven temperature between °C, °F and gas mark, see the temperature converter.
When you scale this recipe up or down, remember that cooking time does not scale linearly. A doubled cake takes longer, but not twice as long; a doubled soup takes roughly twice as long. The cooking-time guide gives sensible starting estimates by dish geometry.
Scaling notes
Scaling Khobz el Dar (Algerian Semolina Bread)
Khobz el Dar (Algerian Semolina Bread) is written for around four servings as it stands on this page — scaling it up for a party or down for a meal-for-one is the small math problem most home cooks face every week. Here's how this particular dish responds to scaling, what changes linearly, and what doesn't.
Side dishes scale more predictably than most categories. Khobz el Dar (Algerian Semolina Bread) cooks in roughly the same time at 1× and 2× because sheet-pan or sauté geometry doesn't change with batch size — only the depth of the layer does. Adjust seasoning by 1.5× when doubling, and watch the pan capacity: crowding a roasting tray means steaming, not browning.
This recipe calls for eggs, which are the trickiest ingredient to scale to non-integer multiples. A US "large" egg weighs about 50 g; if a fractional scaling lands on, say, 1.5 eggs, beat one egg and weigh 25 g of the beaten mixture rather than guessing. The same goes for halving recipes — half an egg is 25 g of beaten egg, not a dramatic estimate.
Yeast leavening makes timing sensitive to dough mass — a doubled batch may proof faster relative to its volume than a single batch, because the larger dough mass holds heat better. Check rise progress 15-20 minutes before the original recipe's time, and don't let dough over-proof while you're chasing the clock.
Skip the math entirely — ScaleRecipe's scaler rewrites every ingredient line above with proper culinary fractions and smart unit promotion the moment you change the serving count. Open the scaler →
Beyond the recipe
Substitutions & make-ahead — Khobz el Dar (Algerian Semolina Bread)
Two things home cooks ask about most when they're outside the recipe's exact assumptions: what swaps work for which ingredients, and how the dish behaves when you make it ahead. Both depend on what Khobz el Dar (Algerian Semolina Bread) is doing structurally — here's the practical version.
Substitution ideas
Eggs
For binding (cookies, quick breads, meatballs): 1 large egg ≈ 1 tbsp ground flaxseed + 3 tbsp water, rested 5 minutes until gelled — structurally closest to a real egg. For moisture without structure (cakes, brownies): ¼ cup unsweetened applesauce or mashed banana per egg, accepting some loss of rise.
Dairy milk
Unsweetened soy milk substitutes 1:1 in custards and baked goods (the protein content matches). Oat milk gives a creamier mouthfeel for soups and coffee drinks. Almond milk works for lighter applications. Skip coconut milk in savoury recipes unless the dish calls for it — the flavour is unmistakable.
All-purpose flour
For gluten-free, a 1-to-1 gluten-free baking blend (one that contains xanthan gum) is the most reliable swap. For texture variations: bread flour gives chewier results; cake flour gives more tender. Avoid almond or oat flour as a 1:1 swap — they don't form gluten and most recipes structurally depend on it.
For weight-based swaps and arbitrary quantities, the ingredient density converter and the cup-to-grams chart cover most pantry staples.
Make-ahead and storage
Side dishes vary widely in their make-ahead tolerance. Khobz el Dar (Algerian Semolina Bread) keeps well refrigerated if it's a roast, grain, or pulse dish — though roasted vegetables especially benefit from a hot-oven reheat (425 °F / 220 °C) to recapture some of their browned crispness. Microwaving makes them mushy. Mashed potatoes and creamed grains need a splash of milk or broth on reheating. Vinaigrette-dressed salads dress at serving time; mayonnaise-based salads benefit from overnight rest.
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Khobz el Dar (Algerian Semolina Bread)
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Each opens in a new tab so the timer keeps running. The math is auditable on the guide page below each converter, with worked examples and where the numbers come from.
Volume
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OpenWeight
Grams, ounces, pounds, kilograms — exact for any ingredient, plus the volume-to-weight conversions for ~40 pantry staples.
OpenTemperature
Fahrenheit, Celsius, gas mark — translate any oven temperature, with notes on conventional vs convection.
OpenCooking time
The cube-root rule for scaling up, the differences between meat / cake / soup geometry, and sensible starting estimates.
OpenPan size
9-inch round vs 8-inch square vs 13×9. The math is surface area, not diameter — and the converter shows you both.
OpenLength
Inches and centimetres — for when a recipe says “cut into 1-inch pieces” and your ruler is metric.
OpenIngredient density
A cup of flour weighs 120 g; a cup of honey weighs 340. The full table of ~40 staples, with sources.
OpenOpen in main scaler
Edit the recipe text, scale by serving count, and copy the result. Same parser as the in-page scaler, more room to work.
OpenFrom the journal
Original essays on the small details.
The why behind the technique — original writing on the ingredient and equipment choices that separate a good cook from a frustrated one.
Reading a recipe like a chef
The 30-or-so recipe terms that show up most often, decoded
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Cooking for one — scaling principles
The math, the practical realities, and the recipes designed for one from the start
Read essayMay 4, 2026
How long do leftovers actually last?
Beyond the USDA's 3–4 days: the variables that actually determine the safe window
Read essayMay 4, 2026
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Where this recipe sits in the wider tradition.
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