Roti canai dough.

[The Old Foodie]

I want to make silky, stretchy roti cenai dough like

this guy

(a pale imitation would do!).

How do I get it so incredibly elastic? Is it the flour (wheat, rice, corn?) or the method? (I know, and a lot of practice - but I did say a pale imitation would do for starters!)

I looked back over the eGullet feature on Indian breads from a good while back, and there is some good stuff there, but nothing on this exact technique.

[Gul_Dekar]

Here's the roti canai thread where I asked about making roti like the kind you want but I still havent gotten around to trying Dim Sim's recipe.

[The Old Foodie]

Here's the roti canai thread where I asked about making roti like the kind you want but I still havent gotten around to trying Dim Sim's recipe. 

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Thanks for pointing me to that thread, I hadn't found it myself.

The ingredients are pretty similar to what I've been using - but I cannot anywhere near approximate that extreme stretchiness. Surely there must be something in the technique. What is it?

[tetsujustin]

I'd suggest working (kneading or in a mixer, depending on how lazy you want to be) it more to develop the gluten strands a lot more. Then it'll hold together a lot better when you try to stretch it.

[whisks]

the secret is the flour they use. the closest match i've been able to get so far is one called "continental sharps" in sydney. it has a coarse feel to it and is high in gluten. it's a strong bread flour which also makes beautiful pizza dough and bread. in the past, i used to use bread flour from the supermarket, but really, there is no comparison. unfortunately, it comes in convenient 10kg bags, but i've found that it is quite versatile, since i can use it to make other things (not cakes tho).

[The Old Foodie]

Thanks for the advice tetsujustin and whisks.

Last nights batch was significantly better after prolonged kneading - it seems that the rule of thumb is knead until exhausted, then continue for the same length of time again.

I will try to source some higher gluten flour here in Brisbane, and post a report.