Roti or Chapatis are staples of North Indian cuisine. My mother makes them twice daily for both lunch and dinner. They are made of pure white wheat flour. However, as I can’t find white wheat flour in Brazil, I mix both whole wheat and all-purpose flour to make my Rotis.
See Atta to get the recipe for the dough.
Hands-on time: 30 minutes
Rest time: 30 minutes
Yield: 10-12 Rotis
ROLLING OUT THE ROTI
1. Set up the area for rolling out the dough by placing the workspace near the Tava, or skillet or griddle. Put 1 cup of dry flour in a container for dusting.
2. Set the Tava to heat over a medium-high flame.
3. Tear off a 1 1/2-inch ball of dough and roll it into the dry flour.
4. Flatten it out into a 4-inch diameter disk with either your fingers or a rolling pin.
4. Add more flour to both sides, if needed and turn it 90 degrees and roll it out again. Continue to roll it out until it forms a 5 or 6-inch circle about 1/16-inch thick.
COOKING THE ROTI
1. The Tava, or large cast-iron skillet, griddle, or large non-stick skillet should be hot, but not smoking.
Tava
2. Place the Roti on the hot Tava and let it cook for 30 seconds. In the meantime, tear off another ball of dough for the next roti and dust it with flour.
3. When the sides of the dough look dry and small bubbles start forming on the top, flip the Roti over and cook it on the other side. Meanwhile, start rolling out the dusted ball of dough for the next Roti.
Place the Roti on the hot Tava 
Roti looks dry on top and bubbbles start to form 
Flip it over. It will be very light in color.
4. When small bubbles start forming on the top of the Roti, flip it again and help it to puff up by applying gentle pressure along the outer edges with a small clean dishcloth working in either a clockwise or a counterclockwise fashion.
Second flip after the bottom of Roti is golden brown with no raw dough 
Puffing up the Roti with gentle pressure 
Moving in a counter-clockwise fashion to puff up the Roti
5. Flip the Roti again and continue to puff it up if it is not fully inflated, otherwise let it cook on this side for 10 seconds or so before removing and serving.
6. You can add a small shaving of butter to keep the Roti moist if you are making many of them. I don’t do this, however, my daughter loves butter.
7. Be sure to stack the cooked Rotis in a well-sealed container lined with a small, clean dishtowel to help retain moisture and to keep them warm.
Well cooked Roti 
Addition of butter is optional
Written by Anju Kapur of Anju’s Table. All content and images on this site are copyright protected. Please do not use any of my images without my permission. Should you wish to share this recipe on your site, please add a link to this post as the source.