Watch Me Learn To Make Paratha (Flaky Indian Flatbread Recipe)

Hi Bold Bakers, I'm very excited to have Ami back in the kitchen with me today. Hi everyone. We are making traditional Indian Paratha, an absolutely beautiful bread and Ami is going to walk me through all the steps and we're gonna make it and it's gonna be really easy I think. I think so. Ok Ami, I want you to show me how to make this because it's such a beautiful bread, it's rich in tradition and I have no idea how to make it. Ok, well then let's get started. So here we have 3 cups of flour and we're gonna throw in some salt and then, you know, we just mix this dough with our hands so I'll put the salt in and then you can, if you want, you can just swirl the salt around the flour. Ok, with my clean hands. With your clean hands. So Ami, I have a question already. And we made something before and we had to use a different flour. Yes. What flour is this? So this is, it's called maida flour, it's a white flour, you can use all purpose flour as well. Maida is a finer grain, it's more traditionally used for flaky Malabar Paratha but all purpose flour would work as well. Ok, great. And then we're gonna throw in some oil and then what you should do is just sort of, like you would with like butter and flour, you're just gonna rub the oil into the flour until it's evenly mixed. Kind of a little bit lumpy. Yeah, or just kind of as evenly as you can, you know, bringing up the flour from the bottom. I love how we can make this with our hands and not have to use a machine. Yeah, it feels good. This is why I adore bread making so much is because it's flour, it's salt, it's water, like there might be a little bit of yeast or oil or maybe it's a raising agent, like baking soda or something, but they're pretty much all made by the same ingredients, just different technique. Yeah, it's really so basic and really such a building block of so many meals around the world. Yeah. How's that looking? Is that looking good? That's looking really great. Here, let me feel for a sec. Yep. So once you have all the oil rubbed into the flour pretty evenly, this is some water we're gonna put in and it'll be sort of wet and sticky at first but as you keep going, it'll come together. So, you know, if it looks like you're kneading it and it's still really crumbly and dry, you can add water just a little bit more, but I would just go a few drops at a time. Yeah, like a splash. Because it won't need much and if there's too much water in it, it'll get a little too sticky and hard to roll. Just to hydrate. I mean, you know, and I know Ami, you know this, when you make bread doughs and pastry, it's really important to remember that we have to rest this when we're done, right? Yeah, absolutely, so that the gluten relaxes. Yeah, so the gluten relaxes and when doughs and breads are relaxed, they express liquid, so it gets wetter. So you're like, oh no, my dough is a little bit on the dry side, you lash in water and then it's too wet. Right. And you do want this dough in particular to be on the softer side, not too sticky that you can't roll it, but you want it nice and soft and it's forgiving. If you make it with a little bit too much water, you can add in a little more flour. I mean, it's okay. Yeah. You know, these are all just, you know, when I was growing up making these roti and paratha and whatnot, it was always a bit of, you know, there was no real measurements. We would throw in some flour and then, you know, I would kind of stand by the sink and put a little water at a time and keep going. So these measurements are, you know, they're pretty close, but they're, you know, your flour might be slightly different, the day might be more humid, there's a lot of different factors that might cause you to need more or less water. Like you said, it's forgiving. Yes. Something that my mom taught me with soft dough is just doing a pinch test. And you want to make, you know, just have it be nice and soft so that you can pinch it almost all the way down. And that seems nice and soft. That seems right. Okay. Yeah. I like this. Yeah. This is, this is a fun bread. Yes. And no yeast. So it's easy. Yeah, that's looking nice. It's like all coming together. It's looking really nice and smooth and even, evenly mixed. Yeah. It's not too dry. It's not too wet. Gorgeous. Now what's our next step? So we're going to let the dough rest for about an hour. If you're in a hurry and you really want to just get this done, you can, but it's nice. It makes it a lot easier to roll out without the dough pulling back on you. So we're going to give it, cover it with either a plate or some plastic wrap so it doesn't dry out. And we'll get back to it in an hour. So it's been an hour. I'm excited for this next step because I know that there's all sorts of folds and everything. So, so I am your student, Ami. Tell me what to do. Okay. So the first thing we're going to do is we're going to divide this dough into eight equal portions. Now, um, why don't I divide it in half and then I'll show you how we, um, then we can work on. I want you to do what you do, which is this, which is when you ask Ami to divide something into things, she puts it up with her hand and takes off balls. So do it your way. Okay. I've never seen anybody do this before. This is, I mean, that's because you haven't spent enough time in a kitchen with an Indian mom. That's true. That's very true. You know, it was all, everything is just done by feel, at least the way we did it. So we would, um, make sure every pieces were even by going like that. If they feel even enough in your hand, you just don't always get it like exactly right. Yeah. And then if, you know, if one, if one, if this feels a little bit bigger, you pinch off a little more and you kind of keep going. I think I'm okay there. Yeah. And then you can cut it. And you know, in this dough, I'm going to say it's a bit wet. Well, no, no, no. We just have, we have a fair amount of dough where I'm going to say that each one of these sections, we're going to cut into three equal pieces. You can make them as big or small as you want. But sometimes as we're just learning how to make parathas, they might be easier when they're slightly smaller. It's a little bit easier to work with. All by feel. Yeah. All by feel. And you know, look, you know, then if they all feel more or less even, and I think these things are, don't have to be an exact science. And then do you roll them into little like balls or do you just leave them the way they I just leave them the way they are. And you know what? We'll bring the bowl back. And so the dough doesn't dry out. We'll put the ones that we're not working with in here and we can just keep them covered. Here I have a tea towel. We can cover them with this. Yeah. That sounds good. All right. So we're going to start with. Okay. We're going to start with our balls of dough. I have a couple of rolling pins. What kind of a rolling pin is this? Well, this is the very classic rolling pin that you would use to roll any Indian bread. And it's just, I mean, you can use any kind of a rolling pin, but these I picked up the last time I was in India, which was a very long time ago. So very traditional. These are funky and I love them. It's gorgeous. It's a great rolling pin. So we're going to take a nice, generous pinch of flour all over our surface. I like how in this new kitchen we get to do it together. Yeah, exactly. So much more space. So then, you know, I like to make a nice, really even ball with my hands and then flatten it out. Just a little less work for the rolling pin. Okie dokie. Now I'll pat both sides with flour, so I'll press it into the flour on both sides so that it doesn't stick to the counter and it doesn't stick to the rolling pin. And then I'll basically just roll a circle as best you can. And you know, I'll roll back and forth a little bit and then I'll keep turning it. You know what's really, so I've never used one of these before, but you know what's really funny is that you get, like, such precision on it. I think it's because of the shape of it or something, but you know, like, I'm going to get this bread really thin because of this rolling pin, just the way it's designed. That's incredible. Yeah. And we would just kind of go back and forth with our hands like this. My mom has this amazing way of rolling where it looks like she's just going back and forth and yet somehow she ends up rolling this perfect circle. Yeah, yeah. That's just a mom thing. My mom does the same stuff. They just know stuff that we don't know. They just, yeah, they just do, but that's what they, that's what they get. They have over us. Well, what I always say to my mom is, you know what, it all tastes the same. That's true. So does it matter if some of them are thin in the middle, but then thick on the edges? Uh, no. I mean, I think you want to try to get it as even as you can. And like, you know what, you can always just go around the edges if I can start seeing light through it. That's a good gauge, isn't it? Yeah. And it's, you know, it's, it's not going to tear. As you can see, I can lift it up. It's pretty pliable. That's the funny, that's the thing I was going to say is that it's a really pliable dough and all it is is salt and flour, oil and water. Yeah. I think the resting phase really helps with that. Look at, I think I did it. Yeah. There you go. You can see through it. Yes. And so next I'm going to take some butter. Okay. And this is a nice soft, you can use ghee as well. But either butter or ghee, just make sure it's nice and soft, but not melted because you want it to, um, to melt on the pan probably. You just want the layers to, uh, uh, the layers of the paratha to stay, uh, layered. And so you don't want the ghee or the butter to melt into the dough. Anyway, I'm taking about a tablespoon of butter, more or less. It doesn't have to be exact. And I'm going to try to brush the entire surface with the butter. So I'm guessing I would have thought that this butter is creating the layers that are also creating layers. Well, the butter, uh, the, the, the layers of, uh, of butter and dough together. So, okay. So the butter, uh, will kind of keep the layers of dough separate and I'll give that to you. Thank you. So spread it all over. Yeah. Okay. So now we're going to start at the top and we're going to do a very tight coil. So this is, um, what's going to start creating those beautiful flaky layers. Gotcha. Um, now you're going to notice a little bit of flour on the underside as you roll. Don't try to brush that off because those, that little bit of flour will also help, uh, keep the layers, uh, separated as they're cooking. Um, so now that you've got a nice tight coil like this, I stretch it out a little bit. Okay. Just a little bit. Give it a, you know, so that you have yet again, this is such an easy dough to work with. I love it. Yeah. It's nice. It's, it's very forgiving. So now we're going to do a coil and we're going to meet together in the center. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to coil this one up. Okay. And this one, the other end down. Gotcha. Okay. So you just kind of keep going and you get this really pretty shape. Oh, look at that. Yeah. And now we're going to just sandwich them together like that. So you get them like this. Yeah. And then you sandwich them like that. And then we're going to press them. Then we're going to squish them and we're going to let them rest. We're going to let them rest. And we're going to repeat that 10 more times. Here we go again. These better be good. So Ami, when they're at this stage and they've been coiled, what do we do next? What's the next step? Well, now we roll them out again. Okay. So just take one that maybe one of the first ones you've had that have had a chance to rest. And this time we're going to roll them out to about an eight inch circle. I can do that. It definitely helps if they had a chance to rest, doesn't it? They're easier to roll. Yes. So we're going to be rolling this out to about six to eight inches, nice and thin. But it does not have to be as thin as our first roll. I can feel the layers. Yeah. I know. Isn't that cool? Yeah. Look at that. Yeah. Nice. Okay. So they're all rolled out and we're ready to cook them. Great. My favorite part. Okay. So this is our tawa, which is a very thin iron pan. It's traditionally used to cook roti, naan, and in this case paratha. Interesting. You know, I've seen these before, but I've never used one. Yeah. They're really, I mean, you could use a regular iron pan as well. These are just thin and they heat up really fast. Yeah. So you're going to put the paratha on flat, the tawa is dry. There's no oil or butter on that. And we're going to cook both sides until they're nice and golden brown. For those of you who have not seen Ami on my social media, Ami has been a part of the Bigger Bolder Baking team for over a year now. And you definitely have taught me a lot, especially when it comes to the Bold Baking Worldwide recipes that we do. We do recipes from all around the world and we release them on a Monday. And every time you come to me with all of these crazy ideas, stuff I've never even heard of. It's so fun. There's just amazing things being baked all around the world all the time. Yeah. For Christmas time, I remember all the different cookies we did. We're doing it again this Christmas. So good. Yeah, it's great to have that perspective because I only know what I know. But it's great to have you come in and be like, well, how about this, that? Have you done this yet? On the website and things like that. But Ami, you are definitely my culinary superhero. Why, thank you. It's fun for me too because there's all these things that I might have always been curious about or have never heard of before. But in doing research for what kind of things we might want to look into baking, it's really fun to learn. It's a great learning experience. We do learn a lot. Yeah, every time we do learn a lot. Yeah. So we see we've cooked both sides of the paratha. It's just, you know, you've got some darker spots here. I love how this bread is just puffing up and you're getting those lovely little bubbles. Is that from the rolling and the coil and the flattening and all that stuff? Yeah, I think so. And there's also, you know, just moisture, like the water in the dough. The water in the butter. Yeah, creating steam. OK, so we are done with the first round of cooking. Okey dokey. And now we're going to cook them again. This time really quickly. We're just going to toast them up with some butter. Nice. So we're going to put a generous amount of butter on the hot pan. Delicious. And we're just going to toast it. We want the heat to be, you know, like medium. The paratha is already cooked. You're just toasting the outside. All right, so it looks like this is done. You see my pan is nice and hot and smoking. So now we're going to do one last thing before our paratha is ready to be eaten, which is we're going to take it out and we're going to scrunch it. Oh, interesting. And I do it with a tea towel because my hands are very sensitive to heat. You can do it with your bare hands if you can handle that. I can do it with my bare hands, for sure. And that is to release the steam so that the paratha stays nice and crunchy and shows up. You can see all the different layers. Yeah, you can. Gorgeous. I'm going to just keep going while this pan is hot. If it looks like it's steaming a little too much, you just lower the heat. Nice and smoky. If you have a fan over your stove, you can turn that on. Which we don't. So we'll just smoke up your kitchen. So do you repeat this process for the rest of the bread? Absolutely. Just keep going and you'll be done in a few minutes. We'll be ready to eat. Yay! My favorite time. Time to eat the paratha. So Ami, I have to say, I think we did a great job. Look at how flaky. Look at all that. So good. This is why we do all that rolling, isn't it? Yes. Yeah. All those layers. All those beautiful layers. Oh my gosh. I know. It's like crispy on the outside and kind of doughy and layered. Mmm. It's like pastry. Yeah. It's like a rolled out croissant. Mmm. It's insane. It's so good. I could imagine this with like kind of a Swedish curry. Creamy. Mmm hmm. This is, you always have the perfect amount of salt in all of your baking. Salt is, yeah, salt is everything. Salt and butter. I think more so than sugar. It's like everything, you know, just brings out flavor. Yeah. Even for something as simple as paratha, which is really just flour. Yeah. It's insane. It's so good. I really hope that you enjoyed this episode. Thank you, Ami, for coming and baking with me today. That was awesome. I learned something new. That was so fun. And if you liked this episode, definitely check out the episode where Ami and I made samosas from scratch with the pastry and everything. It was absolutely incredible. But I hope you enjoyed this episode and we'll see you back here again really soon.