Northern India Cooking Class; Lesson 6: Chapatis

Instructions

1. Pour flour into a large bowl. Make a well in the flour and slowly add water, in quarter cup increments, while incorporating into flour with clean hands. Knead as you would bread, the amount of water added depends on the humidity, type of flour used and other ambient conditions.
2. Keep kneading and gathering the dough, seven or eight minutes, so it does not stick to the sides of the pan. The consistency of the batter should be not be sticky. Gather the dough into a ball and cover pan with a damp cloth. Let dough rest one hour and up to four hours, at room temperature.
3. Once you are ready to start, remove the cloth from the dough and add oil to the side of the pan, or transfer it in an easily accessible smaller bowl, if desired
4. Divide dough into pieces about the size of large golf balls and lightly cover.
5. Roll it into a tight ball between lightly compressed palms (you want to avoid any seams) and make as smooth a ball as possible. Place flour on work surface or plate, dust palm with flour, and flatten each ball in the flour, pressing each ball into the flour.
6. Remove from flour and on a floured surface, flatten the dough with a rolling pin, rolling from the center with light strokes, until the disk is 7 to 8 inches in diameter. If it starts to stick to the rolling pin or the counter, gently lift it up and cover both sides with more dry flour. Keep rolling until the disk is 7 to 8 inches in diameter. Do not turn over. Set aside and repeat with several of the remaining dough balls; do not stack rolled-out dough.
7. Meanwhile, place dry griddle or low-lipped saute pan on the stove and heat over high, until griddle is hot (Hold your hand two inches above the griddle; when your palm feels hot, the griddle is ready.)
8. Place a chapati disk on the griddle and let it cook 10-15 seconds; with a spatula, gently flip over. Cook until small bubbles begin to form in the dough, about one minute. Turn the chapati over and finish cooking another minute. At this stage the chapati should begin to balloon. The process can be accelerated by pressing the bubbles with your spatula. (If the bread begins to burn before ballooning, shake the pan and press chapati gently encouraging it to puff.) After it balloons, remove to a platter and brush with melted butter or ghee.
9. Continue cooking and stacking the breads, brushing with ghee. You may wrap cooked chapati in paper towels or a clean cloth for several hours to keep the breads soft and warm, if desired. Wrap leftovers in paper towels and then foil. They will keep several days refrigerated; reheat prior to serving.