Chocolate Stuffed Paratha (Paratha au chocolat)
Chocolate Paratha
Mamta Gupta
This paratha came about as there was a discussion going on, on one of the food forums I frequent, about chocolate being used in everything these days. As I was planning to make some stuffed parathas anyway and had made some dough already, I decided to experiment with chocolate. I like dark, 60-80% chocolate, so I used that. They came out unexpectedly nice, something I will make again. I will experiment with other additions, like chopped raisin or flaked almonds next time. Today, I made some with grated chocolate, which worked really well, and others with chopped chocolate, which were harder to roll out and not so great. Perhaps a finer chopping may have worked better! If anyone makes them, do please let me know how they came out and send me your pictures too.
Makes approximately 6
Ingredients
For the dough:
250 gm. (2 level cups) chapatti flour
150-200 gm. dark chocolate
150 ml. water approximately. Add a little more or a little less until you get a soft dough
Butter
A little dry flour kept on a large plate, to use for dusting during rolling out
Instructions
Making dough:
Place flout in a bowl and water slowly, mixing it all the time, until you get a soft dough. If you are new to making parathas, it is better to have slightly firm dough, which is easier to handle while rolling out. Experienced cooks prefer a little softer dough; softer the dough, softer the parathas. There is no need to knead it a lot, just bring it together properly.
Leave it to stand for 10-20 minutes. Knead briefly again, until the dough is smooth.
Grate chocolate or break it up in a food processor until it looks like grated chocolate.
Rolling out Parathas:
Break dough into 6-7 portions and roll each into a ball. Keep covered with a moist cloth. Once you learn to make parathas well, you can make 1 ball for one paratha at a time and roll the next ball and paratha, while the previous one is cooking.
Dust 1 ball with flour and roll it out to 8-10 cm. in size.
Take roughly 1 tbsp. of the chocolate and place it in the centre of the circle. Pull the edges together towards the centre and seal by pressing gently.
Roll it into a ball.
Heat a griddle or tava.
Dust the stuffed circle with flour on both sides and roll out gently to approximately 20 cm. in dianeter. You may need to dust it with dry flour a couple of times during the rolling out process.
Cooking the parathas:
Place the paratha on the heated tava or griddle (medium hot, not smoking hot). Turn it over when it changes colour slightly. You can see a few blisters on the under surface if you flip it over.
Cook the other side the same way. Turn it over again.
Press gently all over, using a flat spatula. This helps to make it crisp. Cook until nicely browned and crisp on both sides. It is important that you crisp the paratha on medium heat and not cook it too fast.
Place it onto a plate, brush it with a thin layer of fresh butter. You can serve with a dollop of lightly beaten, fresh double cream.
Serve hot a cup of hot tea or coffee.
