Roti Chapati Phulka with Flaxseeds Healthy Recipe

Roti is made fresh every day in India.

Nutrition Aspects

We will modify the typical Roti recipe .

1. Replace Warm water with warm skim milk to increase Calcium.

2. We will add Flaxseeds (Alsi) to improve on fiber and add omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids.

3. We will add crushed Almonds to add Vitamin E.

4. We will keep the whole wheat flour (Atta)

5. For Basting option, we will use a combination of virgin olive oil and walnut oil.

Ingredients

1. Atta (Whole wheat flour): 2 Cups
2. Salt: 1/8 teaspoon

3. Thinly sliced almonds: 1 teaspoon
4. Alsi (Flax seed): 2 Tablespoon
5. Warm skim milk (near 100ºF): ¾ Cup

6. Basting option: Walnut oil: 1 teaspoon and Extra virgin olive oil: 1 Tablespoon whisked together

Flour for dusting and rolling

Method

Dough

1. Mix salt, almonds, and Flaxseeds. Make a mound. Make a well in the flour mound. Add warm milk and start mixing dough and knead. If the dough is too sticky, add 1 Table spoon of flour. If the dough is too hard, add up to one Tablespoon of milk or water (one teaspoon at a time) to get the right consistency.

2. Gather dough in to a ball. Cover with damp kitchen towel or a plastic film. Let it rest 20 to 30 minutes at room temperature.

Rolling dough

We need to roll dough out to form a 6" diameter disc about the thickness of a Nickel (5¢ coin) for Roti or Chapati. For Phulka, need to roll dough out to form a 5" diameter disc about the thickness of a Dime (10¢ coin). How you roll the dough will also determine whether the bread will puff up evenly or not.

1. Pinch dough to make one bread and form it into a ball. Now flatten it to form a patty about 2" to 3" round. This will guide you in maintaining the round shape when using the rolling pin. Always apply rolling pin from the middle of the patty to outside. It takes practice to roll out a round disc. If you are a novice, use a lid of coffee can and a sharp knife to form the round disc.

2. Always use rolling pin on one side of the dough. Do NOT turn the dough over and roll again, it is called re-rolling. Avoid re-rolling. If you look at the cross-section of a finished puffed flat bread, you will notice one side is thicker than the other side. The thinner side corresponds to the side which was in contact with the rolling pin. We will call it the skin surface.

Cooking

Heat the griddle (Tawa). Put a test bread on the Tawa. If the bread sticks to griddle, you need to increase heat. If the bread gets brown spots too quick, it is too hot. The bread is cooked in three steps.

1. Put the rolled bread on the griddle with skin surface down. The time to cook will depend on the thickness of the bread, 1 minute for Roti, 45 seconds for Phulka. Use a turner to lift a corner to see that the underside has a few brown spots.

2. Turn it over and let it cook. The time to cook will depend on the thickness of the bread, 90 seconds for Roti, 1 minute for Phulka. You will notice a steam bubble trapped in dough. Again use a turner to lift a corner to see that the underside has a brown spots.
3. Turn it over. Press with a clean dry rag as the steam bubble will get larger and larger to encircle the whole area. The time will depend on the thickness of the bread, 1 minute for Roti and 45 seconds for Phulka.

Basting

Brush the the skin surface with Walnut and Olive oil mixture.