Home Dessert How to make Indian flatbreads. How to make Indian flatbreads? Video tutorial on making chapatis

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How to make Indian flatbreads. How to make Indian flatbreads? Video tutorial on making chapatis

Delicious chapati flatbreads are a pastry that is considered traditional to India. Since this bread turns out tasty and satisfying, the recipe has gained popularity in other countries. The preparation of such flatbreads, which do not contain yeast or oil, is especially common in Afghanistan and Nepal. But what prevents us from preparing such a simple and unpretentious delicacy? Nothing! It is worth mentioning that chapatis are usually fried over an open fire. Since not every one of us has a private house or cottage with a grill or tandoor located outside, you can make such a delicacy at home. It will turn out no less appetizing, crispy, tasty. This is the similarity between chapati and Jewish matzo and Armenian yeast-free lavash. As an analogue to regular, familiar bread, these flatbreads are simply perfect!

Cooking time – 1 hour.

Number of servings – 4.

Ingredients

To make Indian chapatis, you don't need any rare or expensive ingredients. All the necessary products (and these are only 3 components) can be found in any store. Write down:

drinking water – 150 ml;
whole grain flour – 250 g;
salt – 2 pinches.

On a note! Original flatbreads, prepared according to a recipe from India, are usually greased with butter while they are still piping hot. This component can be taken according to your own taste.

How to make chapatis

Indian chapati flatbreads are not as difficult to prepare as it may seem to novice cooks. This recipe does not hide any special secrets or secrets. That is why, even if you have never been to India or are hearing about such pastries for the first time, you can safely begin a culinary experiment. Everything will be a success! The proposed step-by-step recipe with photos will help with this, and the videos will answer any remaining questions.

The first thing you need to do is flour. It should be sifted thoroughly. You can do this immediately in a deep bowl or bowl.

Flour must be mixed with salt. It is very important to mix the mixture thoroughly so that the salt is distributed evenly.

Now you need to pour drinking water into the dry mixture in a thin stream. To ensure that the flour dissolves as desired, take a warm liquid. Do not pour out the entire amount at once. Do this in portions. In this case, after adding the next part of the water, mix the mass thoroughly.

Next you need to move on to kneading the chapati dough. To make Indian flatbreads excellent at home, you will need to knead an elastic and soft composition. Knead it thoroughly but delicately. As a result, you should get a mass that does not stick to your palms at all.

Roll the resulting dough into a ball. It should be wrapped in food grade cellophane. Give the mixture about half an hour for the so-called proofing.

When the dough has “rested”, it will need to be divided into several fragments.

Each piece must be thoroughly rolled out with a rolling pin. The result will be a thin and even layer.

Next, you can move on to directly frying the flatbreads in Indian style. To do this, you need to take a solid cast-iron frying pan and heat it up.

On a note! No need to add oil! No creamy product is used here either!

Then you need to put the chapati from yeast-free dough, which is prepared simply and quickly, into a dry and hot frying pan. The flatbreads will inevitably puff up when frying.

Note! If you have the desire and time, the empty cavity in the flatbreads can be filled with any filling: both sweet and salty. After all, the taste of Indian chapatis is neutral.

All that remains is to grease the finished baked goods with butter.

Our delicious chapatis are ready! Start tasting!

Video recipes

Of course, novice cooks who have never delved into the essence of the cuisines of other cultures and have not tried to fry flatbread in a frying pan may be confused or frightened. To prevent this from happening, and as a result the hostess can be 100% confident, it is worth using video recipes. The instructions provided cover the entire Indian baking process in great detail. So watch and feel free to repeat these culinary experiments:

In order to prepare real Indian flatbreads, you do not need to be a top-class cook. It is enough just to stock up on the necessary products, and also strictly follow all the steps in accordance with the recipe.

Hearty bhaturi

For Indians, homemade bread is a product that must be present on the table. Almost no meal is complete without it. Externally, it looks like a flatbread, which is prepared according to a special recipe using certain equipment. This product has many varieties. The most popular of them include:

1. Bhaturi.

2. Paratha.

4. Chapati.

Typically, wheat, corn, millet, barley and even rice flour are used to produce such products. Indian flatbreads are typically prepared using:

tawa (cast iron frying pan);
tandoor (brazier);
karkhaya (pots with a spherical bottom).

Depending on the specific product, one or another equipment is used. For example, you can try making delicious Indian flatbreads called bhaturi.

So, we will need the following ingredients:

400 grams of wheat flour;
25 grams of white sugar;
350 milliliters of kefir;
12 grams of baking soda;
a little vegetable oil;
5 grams of salt;
sesame seeds.

Practical part:

Sift a measured amount of flour into a deep bowl.
Simultaneously add sugar, baking soda and salt.
Add kefir in a thin stream. Let's start preparing the dough (without lumps). It should become soft enough and stick to your hands a little. Then the cakes will turn out tender and airy.
Using hands dipped in oil, form a ball. Then you should roll it out with a rolling pin into a layer (maximum thickness - 7 millimeters).
Bake on both sides in a frying pan with a very small amount of oil. The fire should be medium. Bhaturi is prepared quite quickly. The hostess just has to manage to turn them over.

During the frying process, these flatbreads acquire a golden crispy crust. They are served with tea for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Fragrant paratha

Some Indian flatbreads are prepared with all sorts of fillings or various spices. As an example, you can follow how the famous paratha is made.

To work you will need the following set of components:

170-200 grams of flour;
1 ¼ cups fresh (or frozen) green peas;
a teaspoon of cumin and lemon juice;
3 chili peppers;
35 grams of vegetable oil;
a little water and salt;
a pinch of sugar and turmeric.

The process consists of several steps:

Sift the flour, mix with vegetable oil, and then pour boiling water and prepare an elastic dough.
Roll it into a ball and set aside for 30 minutes.
Grind the peas and pepper in a blender. If you use a frozen product, you must first prepare it by placing it in a double boiler along with sugar. You can add a small piece of ginger root to the mixture for flavor.
Add the remaining ingredients to the prepared puree. The resulting mixture should also be rolled into balls. This will be the filling.
Divide the dough into several parts, first roll each of them into a pancake.
Place a ball of filling in the center.
Fold in the edges and roll out again.
Bake in a pan on both sides.

Paratha is usually served with sour cream or yogurt.

Crispy puri

This option is ideal for vegetarians. Although anyone can prepare crispy and almost airy puris. These are Indian flatbreads, the recipe of which does not include the use of eggs.

Here is the list of ingredients for 280 grams of flour:

5 grams of salt;
150 milliliters of warm water;
25 grams of ghee and a little vegetable oil.

Cooking technology:

Pour the water into a deep container.
Add salt and stir thoroughly until it is completely dissolved.
Add the sifted flour and, making circular movements with a wooden spoon, knead into a thick dough.
Make a small depression in the middle. Then pour in the preheated ghee.
The final kneading should be done on the cutting table. The mass should be quite soft.
Cover the dough with a wet towel and leave it on the table for 20 minutes.
Divide the prepared semi-finished product into parts.
Roll each piece into a flat cake with a diameter of 15 centimeters.
Fry in a frying pan on both sides in a large amount of vegetable oil.
Transfer the finished products to a napkin to remove excess fat.

You should get crispy openwork cakes covered with large bubbles. We wish everyone bon appetit!

Unleavened chapatis

We offer one more recipe. Chapatis are Indian flatbreads that locals bake most often. The main reason for this popularity is the minimum set of ingredients required for their preparation.

To make regular chapatis, you will need to take: 320 grams of flour, 10 grams of salt and 100 milliliters of water.

Cooking instructions

Step #1. First you need to make the dough. To do this, combine the flour with salt, and then add hot water and stir well. The dough should be moderately soft and not stick to your hands.

Step #2. The mass needs to be rolled into a ball, put in a plastic bag and left for a couple of hours (you can even overnight).

Step #3. Divide the dough into pieces and then form them into small balls.

Step #4. Roll out the blanks with a rolling pin into flat cakes 5 millimeters thick.

Step #5. Bake in a clean frying pan without oil.

Step #6. By turning the product to the other side, you can see how it begins to slowly “inflate”. Then we put the filling into this “bag”.

The finished tortillas are usually stacked on top of each other. Be sure to treat the surface of each of them with oil.

Fluffy naan

There is a more complex option. These are Indian naan flatbreads. In this case, yeast dough is used. And it usually requires a lot of time.

Product set:

one and a half glasses of milk;
1 egg;
50 grams of butter;
2 cups of flour;
5 grams of salt;
100 milliliters of water;
a teaspoon of dry yeast;
25 grams of sugar;
a couple of cloves of garlic.

Sequence of preparation of flatbreads:

Combine water with milk and add a little sugar. Pour the yeast with this solution for 15 minutes so that it begins to work.
Add flour, egg and prepare the dough by thoroughly mixing the ingredients. It should lie aside for at least an hour.
Divide the dough into parts, roll them into balls and let the pieces lie for another 15 minutes, covering them with a towel.
Use a rolling pin to form thin cakes out of the balls.
Bake in a pan for 2 minutes on each side. When heated, the dough puffs up.

Want your cooked tortillas to stay warm longer? Then place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment.

So, we have shared with you recipes for fragrant Indian flatbreads.

Indian unleavened chapati flatbreads are a very simple, but tasty and satisfying pastry. They can be served with the first or second course instead of bread, or they can be supplemented with honey, cheese, cottage cheese, milk, and you will get a complete independent meal.

Indian cuisine traditionally uses whole wheat flour (it is ground right before preparing the grain in hand-held stone mills) and ghee. If you don’t have good ghee, you can use melted butter. For a lean version of chapati, any vegetable oil is suitable, but it is better to take aromatic one.

How to make chapatis at home

We start cooking by making unleavened dough by hand or in a dough mixer (bread maker): 250 ml of water, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil. We take 500 grams of flour, of which 200 grams are whole grain and 300 grams are regular premium wheat. If you don’t have whole grain flour, you can add 2-3 tablespoons of bran to half a kilogram of wheat flour, and you’ll get about the same thing.

Wrap the finished yeast-free unleavened dough in cling film and place it in the refrigerator to awaken the fiber for at least half an hour. While everything, except the composition of the flour, went quite normally, Indian motifs begin when shaping the flatbreads and baking them.

There are two versions of chapati flatbreads: simple, when the dough is rolled out thinly, baked in a dry frying pan and greased with butter, and puff pastry - more complex, but tasty and impressive. We will do the second one.

Let's prepare the ripened dough, flour for adding and melted butter.

Cut a piece of dough approximately the size of a ping pong ball.

Roll it into a thin cake the size of a frying pan or rack on which we will bake, grease with melted (or vegetable) butter.

Now we will fold the greased dough in a certain way so that the final result is a puff pastry. First, fold it in half, with the edges towards the middle.

Now double it again - so our dough has acquired four layers.

Using the same method (in two, with the edges toward the middle), fold the four-layer tape in half.

And in half again.

Wrap the resulting square in 16 layers in cling film.

We also cut the remaining dough into puff pieces and put it in the refrigerator so that it cools and the layers are finally formed.

Roll out the chilled dough pieces to the desired size.

Chapatis are baked on both sides in a dry, thick-bottomed frying pan or on a grill pan.

But they are best obtained in an air fryer, which in terms of temperature is closest to those stone hearths on which these unleavened flatbreads are baked by housewives in India.

Grease the finished puff pastry with butter and eat it over a plate - the crispy puff pastry crumbles into light flakes that instantly melt in your mouth!

Try it too, using my simple recipe with step-by-step photos to make chapatis at home. I am sure that all those who love crunch will like these Indian yeast-free unleavened flatbreads. 😉

In an Indian family, it is perhaps unthinkable to imagine a single meal without chapatis! According to tradition, they are always served warm, just removed from the heat. Slices are torn off from the flatbread, still blazing with heat, and dipped into sauces, capturing pieces of all kinds of dishes. In the northern part of the country, chapatis are served with fillings, in particular the filling of mashed potatoes and fried onions is popular.

What flour is suitable for chapatis?

Bread cakes are prepared from special flour, which is obtained by grinding whole wheat grains. A special type of flour is sold in Indian stores, it is called atta - a finely ground dark yellow powder. The dough made from this flour is easy to knead, it turns out velvety and elastic, without lumps. You can replace atta with coarse whole grain wheat flour; it mostly contains bran and is as close as possible to the original, but it must be sifted.

How to bake chapatis?

Chapatis are baked on a tawa - a special cast-iron frying pan without sides with a convex bottom. It is heated thoroughly so that the bread bakes faster and better and is not too dry. No oil is added, it is cooked in a completely dry frying pan, and then kept on an open fire so that the cake swells with steam, like a ball. At home, the tava can be replaced with a heavy cast iron frying pan with a handle, and “blown” on a gas burner. Let's take a closer look at the recipe for Indian bread - how to cook chapati from whole grain flour at home on a gas stove.

Total cooking time: 40 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Yield: 15 pieces

Ingredients

sifted whole grain flour – 250 g
warm water – 150 ml
salt – 0.5 tsp.

Preparation

I sifted the whole wheat flour through a fine sieve. In a bowl I combined 250 g of flour and a little more than 0.5 tsp. salt. Then she gradually poured in water (temperature slightly above room temperature), kneading with her hands so that the dough becomes soft rather than tight. The water requirement is approximate! Consumption depends on the quality, grinding and moisture content of the flour. Therefore, pour it in parts, in several stages, kneading with your hands until you achieve the required consistency.

The dough should be moderately moist, soft, elastic and pliable, like plasticine. I transferred it to a board and kneaded it for a long time, about 6-8 minutes, until it became homogeneous. Pay due attention to kneading, then the dough will roll out easily and bake well. I sprinkled the kneaded bun with water, covered it with a damp towel and left it for 20-30 minutes to rest. You can leave it on the table for up to 2 hours, but then do not forget to moisten the towel so that the surface does not dry out.

Once the dough had rested, I placed the cast iron skillet on the stove to warm up. No need to add oil. With wet hands, I kneaded the bun again, divided the dough into 15 equal parts, and rolled it into balls.

Lightly sprinkle the board with flour. Using a rolling pin sprinkled with flour, I rolled the balls into round cakes, approximately 14-15 cm in size. Next, the excess flour needs to be shaken off, otherwise the grains will burn over an open fire and crumble heavily onto the stove.

I placed the flatbreads one at a time on a hot frying pan. Bake for about a minute, until whitish bubbles begin to appear on the surface and the edges curl up.

I turned the bread over to the other side (it’s easiest to use tongs) and baked for about half a minute until the surface began to swell and began to bubble.

After a few seconds, the cake should puff up greatly from the steam. There should be no wet areas on the surface. A little flour may fall off and brown marks will appear - this is normal.

Chapati should be served immediately, immediately after cooking, piping hot. If desired, you can pat the flatbread with your hands to release steam, and then brush with a piece of butter. Or you can serve it just like that, with traditional Indian dishes. I made rajma curry, it was delicious!

If you want to extend the shelf life of the flatbreads, then wrap them in a towel, then the chapatis will retain heat for some time and remain soft. In the air they quickly dry out and become crispy, like lavash. Bon appetit!

On a note

Chapatis can be baked on an electric stove. In this case, first bake the rolled out dough in a frying pan, turning it several times until it is completely baked on both sides. Then cover the top side with a soft cloth and press lightly, hold for a while until the chapati swells.

Chapati is an Indian bread that is very popular among vegetarians. These flatbreads are interesting because when baked they puff up like balls, forming a cavity inside where you can put any filling. When I was at university and lived in a student dormitory, I saw chapati cakes being prepared a couple of times. And although the girl who baked them assured me that it was better to hold the flatbreads over an open fire to “puff up” later, I was convinced from my own experience that with the correct kneading of the dough they rise perfectly in the frying pan.

So, the dough. It’s great if you have whole wheat flour or atta flour, but you can also bake with regular wheat flour.

Add salt to the flour and pour in hot water. Knead the dough like you would for dumplings. It should be soft and not stick to your hands. Place the dough in a plastic bag for 2 hours (or better yet, overnight) to “ripen” it.

Tear small pieces from the dough and roll them into balls, or roll the dough into a sausage and cut it into small pieces, and only then form into balls. Each ball must be rolled out into a flat cake (5mm thick). Don't forget to add flour when you roll out the dough so that the cakes don't stick to the table or rolling pin.

Take the flatbread and place it on a heated frying pan without oil! We bake it on one side, then turn it over and bake it on the other side. I don’t know what this is connected with, but my flatbreads begin to rise already when baking on the first side, but it happens the other way around when you turn them over.

I tried baking both large chapatis like pancakes, and very small ones - both of them turned out. Although at first I was worried that it would be difficult for the large flatbread to rise.