Hi all!

I am trying to make soft rotis which could stay soft for a few hours. below is the recipe i use to make them. However some of my rotis are soft(but uncooked) and they get hard when i thought they are well cooked.

whole wheat--i use walmart brand as the indianbrands are not 100% wholewheat eventhough they say so

water

pinch of salt

oil little bit

i mix the above to make dough

heat the pan with stove on medium

make roti(i just do it once no foldings and again making the roti)

put it on the hot pan

when its half cooked

i remove it from the pan

and put directly on the stove on the other side

wait till they puff out and remove

am i doing something wrong?

Thanks,

saumya

Hello Saumaya

1. 100% whole wheat roties can never be as soft as ones from a mixed flour, unless you put oil in the dough, which then makes them fat rich. Personally, I NEVER add oil to my chapatti dough. I use ?number 2? chapatti flour, which has a fair bit of husk. I do not add anything else, not even salt, only water to my chapatti dough. If you can not get chapatti dough, mix 50/50 or 60/40 of whole wheat and white flour.

2. The dough should be soft. Firmer the dough, harder the chapatties will be.

3. The ?tawa? or the griddle should be moderately hot, a cold one will cook them very slowly and make chapatties harder.

4. Do not overcook them. Burnt roties are always harder.

5. Stack them on top of each other as soon as you make them, keeping covered/wrapped in a towel.

6. I will suggest that you go through the steps here; Chapatti, carefully. They need a little practice, but are not difficult to make.

I hope that one of the other visitors here will give some other ideas too. Where are you Steve? You are missed!

Thanks for your detailed suggestions mamta!

Since whole wheat is good for health, i take all the pain of making rotis but if i add 50% white flour then i would rather have rice which i like alot.

Hmmm...very disappinting to know that rotis with 100% would never be soft.....

Do you know if cunsuming 100% wheat rotis for dinner everyday is ok for our stomach? or are they too hard for digestion?

Hello Sumaya

Bran is the harder, outer covering of wheat. Whole wheat is better for getting vitamins and minerals, complex carbohydrates, fibre, phytohcemicals etc, but the extra roughage in it will make dough/roties harder.

When you say you would rather eat rice, be aware that most everyday rice, like Basmati, is also heavily processed and not ?whole?.

100% whole grain flour will of course be more nutritious but not as soft, that is all I am saying. Look at a standard toast made from white flour bread and then made from whole wheat bread. Which is ?harder??

Nutritionally, of course you should eat more of whole wheat stuff. They will be better, if eaten straight away, fresh and hot, straight off the tawa or griddle. Make them whole wheat, but try all the other things I mentioned to keep roties soft, you will see a difference.

Mamta

Just a possibility here ...

I got this idea from a vegetarian cooking show I was watching where the host (Christine Pirello) used whole wheat PASTRY flour (because it is lighter than whole wheat flour) and semolina flour as part of the ingredients for her waffles. The other ingredients got more and more interesting, by the way!!

Avocado oil was used to give a more buttery taste, applesauce was also used in the batter.

The rotis I have had at various places, while tasting "heavier" than a poori, had a texture I liked very much - resistant to the bite, but still moist. I suspect ingredients other than just whole wheat flour and water were used, but they did not taste buttery or oily which is almost always the case with pooris.

I found out recently how naan is made and now I know why it is so beloved!!

If you want to continue eating whole wheat/grain bread as part of your Indian culinary experience, I hope you can find a way to get your rotis more tender. There has to be a modification you can make to improve upon your harder version. It's worth the project to find the solution given your interest in eating healthier!!

Hi, Saumya,

I recently learned to make rotis, and I?ve made every mistake in the book. The biggest breakthrough came from switching to atta (chapati flour). It?s the perfect variety of wheat, and the perfect grind, to make rotis. I don?t think Mamta would want me to name a brand, so I won?t. The bag says it?s stone-milled 100% whole wheat flour, although it?s not as dark as whole-wheat flour from the health food store.

As Mamta says, don't have the dough too firm, let it rest before cooking, and don?t have the pan too hot. Cook the first side only about 10 seconds (just to ?set? the dough). Then flip it and cook until light brown spots form on the bottom. Flip again -- either onto the tawa (and press with a wadded-up towel) or onto the flame (keep it moving until it puffs). This is the stage where it?s easy to overcook them. Then between the towels to steam and stay soft. Good luck!

Thank you all for your valuable suggestions! I will try to follow them and hope that i can make better rotis.