Recipe
🍳 BREAKFAST
Mofo Gasy
Slightly sweet fermented rice-flour cakes griddled in round moulds, "Malagasy bread" for breakfast.
Malagasy · medium · serves 4
prep 15 min · cook 20 min
~376 cal · 5g protein · 72g carbs · 8g fat · 2g fiber · 18g sugars · 6g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Mofo gasy, literally 'Malagasy bread', is a breakfast street food of Madagascar: slightly sweet, rice-flour batter poured into round moulds set over a charcoal fire and cooked until the little cakes are golden and crisp at the edges, soft and spongy within.
Sold hot from griddles at roadside stalls each morning in Antananarivo and beyond, mofo gasy is the classic accompaniment to a cup of coffee. The gentle fermentation gives it a subtle tang, and its lightly sweet flavor makes it comforting and moreish.
Inexpensive and ubiquitous, mofo gasy is the everyday breakfast of ordinary Malagasy life. Watching the vendor ladle batter into the sizzling moulds and hand over a paper cone of the warm cakes is a familiar morning ritual across the country.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and gluten-, dairy-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
2 cups rice flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp yeast
as needed warm water
1/2 cup
as needed oil for the pan
a pinch a pinch of salt
Instructions
1
Whisk the rice flour, sugar, yeast, salt, coconut milk, and warm water into a thick batter.
2
Let it ferment until bubbly, 1-2 hours.
3
Heat an oiled aebleskiver or muffin-well pan.
4
Fill the wells with batter and cook until set and golden underneath, then flip.
5
Serve warm with coffee.
Antananarivo tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Analamanga (Antananarivo). Romazava was one of the hanimpitoloha, the seven dishes served at the court of the Merina kings who ruled from these highlands. The everyday version is plainer: rice, a brothy stew, a spoonful of tomato and ginger relish, and sakay, the chilli paste left on the table for whoever wants it.
🗺️
Madagascar. Romazava carries a surprise for anyone who has not met it. Among its greens is bredes mafana, whose leaves and flower buds leave a tingling numbness on the tongue, closer to Sichuan pepper than to anything else in the pot. Madagascar is also the world's leading producer of vanilla, which the island exports rather than cooks with.
🌍
Africa. Much of what reads as timeless African cooking is younger than the Atlantic crossings. Maize, cassava, groundnut, chilli and tomato all arrived from the Americas after 1500 and pushed older crops aside; millet, sorghum, teff, yam and fonio are the ones that were already here, and the map still shows the join.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Madagascar
RomazavaMadagascar’s national broth: zebu beef and mixed leafy greens with ginger and tomato, ladled over rice.
Ravitoto sy HenakisoaPounded cassava leaves slow-cooked with pork, garlic, and ginger, one of Madagascar's best-known dishes.
Koba AkondroA dense steamed cake of banana, ground peanuts, and rice flour wrapped in banana leaf, a Malagasy street sweet.
Browse all Madagascar recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Whisk.
Storing it: Cool leftover rice quickly and refrigerate within an hour. Keep up to 2 days and reheat until piping hot all the way through.
Make it a Madagascar meal
RanovolaDrink
Koba AkondroDessert
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Frequently asked questions
What is Mofo Gasy?
Slightly sweet fermented rice-flour cakes griddled in round moulds, "Malagasy bread" for breakfast.
Where does Mofo Gasy come from?
Mofo Gasy is a Malagasy dish from Analamanga (Antananarivo), Madagascar.
Can Mofo Gasy be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Mofo Gasy recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Mofo Gasy safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Mofo Gasy take to make?
About 35 minutes total (15 minutes prep, 20 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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