7Chapatis / 6 Sǽd 226

I love flatbreads with curries, and decided to give making my own a shot, rather than buying premade ones. They turned out really good - the right flavour and chewyness without being too dry. A few turned out a bit crispy and inflexible, which I think was a function of rolling them a bit too thinly.

I mostly followed this recipe from BBC Food with a couple of changes. Instead of purely wholewheat flour, I used a 75/25 mix of wholewheat/white flour. I ended up using less water than specified in the recipe too - about 175ml.

Though the recipe doesn’t mention it, oiling the frying pan is really important. Using a spray oil would be easy, but I found that using a basting brush to quickly brush the pan with oil works great. It distributes the oil unevenly, letting some pockets char and other pockets bake, giving you the right kind of flavour.

Also, make sure the pan is really hot - I put mine on the highest setting. If its too low, it takes too long to char and you end up baking all the moisture out of it.

ingredients flour mix, water and salt

dough ball dough ball, ready to be flattened

char the kind of char you’re looking for

with curry eaten with some homemade butter chicken

70%
hydration
1m
baking time
1m
total time

Ingredients

  • 250g 75/25 mix of wholewheat and white flour
  • 175ml cold water
  • 1 tsp salt

Algorithm

  1. Preheat a shallow frying pan on high.

  2. In a mixing bowl, add the flour and salt. Add the water bit by bit, kneading in the bowl as you go. After all the water is in, you’ll want to knead the dough ball until its a little tacky - not sticky.

  3. Roll out the dough and divide into 8 balls. Keeps these balls under cling film or a moist towel while you work, so they dont dry out.

  4. Use a rolling pin to flatten the chapatti into a roughly-circular shape.

  5. Brush the pan with oil and drop the chapatti in. Bake the chapatti for about 30 seconds, or until you get a nice amount of char and bubbling. Flip, and bake the other side.

  6. When finished, place on a paper towel. Stack the chapattis as you cook them, but seperate them with a sheet of kitchen paper to absorb any steam and moisture.