Flaky Roti help

[pastameshugana]

I didn't post this in baking, because it's not really *baking* - but if it needs to move I apologize.

 

Below is a picture of a roti from a little chain restaurant here in Johannesburg. These things are just ridiculously good. We've made roti, paratha, and tortilla's for years, but nothing like this.

 

It's as if a tandoori roti and a croissant had a love-child and baptized it in butter. And this picture certainly doesn't do it justice.

 

How do you get that flaky, layered, texture?

 

[KennethT]

3 hours ago, pastameshugana said:

I didn't post this in baking, because it's not really *baking* - but if it needs to move I apologize.

 

Below is a picture of a roti from a little chain restaurant here in Johannesburg. These things are just ridiculously good. We've made roti, paratha, and tortilla's for years, but nothing like this.

 

It's as if a tandoori roti and a croissant had a love-child and baptized it in butter. And this picture certainly doesn't do it justice.

 

How do you get that flaky, layered, texture?

 

This looks a lot like the roti prata that I love so much in Singapore.   The basics are that you make a stretchy dough and stretch it really thin so that you can see through it.  In Singapore, they slather the dough with some kind of shortening (which will stay solid at Singapore temp) then roll into a snake, then coil it into a disk and pressed flat.

[pastameshugana]

3 minutes ago, KennethT said:

This looks a lot like the roti prata that I love so much in Singapore.   The basics are that you make a stretchy dough and stretch it really thin so that you can see through it.  In Singapore, they slather the dough with some kind of shortening (which will stay solid at Singapore temp) then roll into a snake, then coil it into a disk and pressed flat.

 

That does sound like the idea. These do have a circular 'break up' pattern that certainly supports that method.

 

Thank you!

[Okanagancook]

This is a very good video.  I have not made these but have seen this technique before.   She mucks around getting the dough the right consistency until about 7 minutes into the video but from then on it is pretty good.  Butter makes it better.  Who knew.  
 

 

Edited August 16, 2022 by Okanagancook (log)

[KennethT]

22 minutes ago, Okanagancook said:

This is a very good video.  I have not made these but have seen this technique before.   She mucks around getting the dough the right consistency until about 7 minutes into the video but from then on it is pretty good.  Butter makes it better.  Who knew.  
 

 

Personally, I like the layers to be thinner, so I (and all the prata guys in Singapore) stretch the dough rather than rolling it out.

 

A while ago, I wrote out a recipe for making the Singaporean chicken curry with roti prata.  The last edit is pretty much my final prata recipe.  While I agree that butter makes it better, I usually make these for during the week meals so I want to keep it a bit healthier, so I use some grapeseed oil (or a neutral flavored olive oil).

 

The results come out really good:

 

[Okanagancook]

Thanks @KennethT

i have copied your recipe here so it is easy to find.  I would like to try your stretching technique.  Thank you.

 

”For the prata, it's actually a relatively lean dough. From research I've done, it seems like the flour all the prata guys in Singapore use have 10.8% protein, which I can't find here.  So for 8 pratas (4 meals of 2 to go along with the curry) it should be 600g flour with approx 10.8% protein. I made this using 118g 7% protein cake flour and 482g of 11.7% KAF all purpose. To this about 1t salt, 1T sugar, 15ml grapeseed oil, 300ml water and 1 egg. Mixed by hand and let sit covered for about an hour or so. After that, I could actually knead it without using any extra flour. I kneaded it in several sessions of about 5 minutes each, separated by 20 min of rest. Divided into 8 balls, rolled in grapeseed oil, then sit in ramekins covered for a few hours. Then sit in the fridge overnight. Then I freeze 6 and stretched 2 a few minutes before the chicken was finished. Cooked until brown on both sides on a med-high pan with a bit of grapeseed oil. I think the key is lots of kneading interspersed with lots of rest to relax the gluten. It's really stretchy - it springs back like a rubber band.  To use the frozen ones, the day I'm making the curry, I'll take them out of the freezer and leave on the countertop all day to defrost and relax.

 

To stretch, take a large section of clean countertop and spread a thin layer of grapeseed oil and oil your hands.  Take a dough ball and flatten into a disk, then, working around in a circle, lift and stretch the edge away from the center and press down on the countertop.  If your countertop has too much oil it will slide, but if just a bit, it should stay there.  Keep going around until you can see the countertop through the dough - it doesn't matter if a couple of holes tear into it as long as you can stretch it really thin. It should be about 2 feet in diameter (roughly). Then spread a little more grapeseed oil on the top surface and roll it into a snake, then coil the snake into a disk tucking the last end underneath.  Cover and let sit and rest for a while.  When ready to cook, press the disk as flat as you can and fry on a medium high heat in a bit more grapeseed oil.  At this point, it's really stretchy, so when you press the disk flat, it comes back to almost its original thickness, so when it hits the hot pan, I'll press it flatter with a spatula.  When justbrowned, flip it and do the same thing.  When done, transfer to a clean countertop or board and with a quick motionwith your hands, clap the edges towards the center a couple times, which should help separate the layers a bit.”

 

 

[pastameshugana]

Thank you all for the wonderful help, I'll report back on our results!

[pastameshugana]

On 8/16/2022 at 4:46 PM, Okanagancook said:

This is a very good video.  I have not made these but have seen this technique before.   She mucks around getting the dough the right consistency until about 7 minutes into the video but from then on it is pretty good.  Butter makes it better.  Who knew.  
 

 

 

Just an update. I was otherwise busy (being lazy) so Mrs. Meshugana tried the recipe in this video - and the technique and flakiness are *perfect*. This is exactly what we were looking for. The only change we'll make in the future is increasing the salt in the recipe.

 

Turns out Fatima is South African (our current home), which makes it extra special!

 

Looking forward to dinner tonight, we'll be having leftover curry (homemade from 'mother in law' spice blend from a local vendor), with these roti.

 

Thanks again!

[FlashJack]

On 8/16/2022 at 7:09 PM, pastameshugana said:

It's as if a tandoori roti and a croissant had a love-child and baptized it in butter.

What a picturesque expression. Great work.