Laccha Paratha
Crispy, flaky, buttery goodness. These parathas are perfect served with a curry, or delicious as a snack on their own.
Equipment
- 1 cast iron tawa or use a a heavy bottomed frying pan
Ingredients
- 750 g Plain Flour
- 1 tbsp Salt
- 1 tsp Sugar
- 1 tsp Sunflower Oil or any neutral oil
- 1 ¼ cup Milk mixed with 1 ¼ cup boiling water
- Ghee (Clarified butter) As required. Approx 1 tbsp in dough and 1 tsp per paratha
Instructions
Making the dough
- Add the salt, sugar and oil to the plain flour into a large mixing bowl.
- Mix thoroughly.
- Mix in the milk mixture slowly, as required. The volume of water required will depend on the type and age of the flour and the humidity.
- Mix just until the dough comes together. At this stage the dough will be very sticky.
- Cover the dough with a damp cloth and let it rest for at least 20mins. Preferably an hour.
- Resting the dough allows the gluten to hydrate and will make rolling easier.
- After an hour, the dough is soft but not sticky and can be handled easily.
- Knead on a floured surface until the dough becomes elastic (like bread dough) for around 5mins.
- Partition into 100g dough balls and rest for 20mins
Folding the dough
- Roll the dough out very thin (ideally in a rectangle shape) and stick one long side to a tabletop.
- Spread on a thin layer of melted ghee.
- Lightly dust on some plain flour.
- Fold the dough in on itself like a fan.
- Lift up the 2 ends of the fan-shaped dough and gently stretch it until it's about 40cm long.
- Slap down the dough onto the work surface. Twist the dough into a swirled roll.
- You should have a layered dough ball. Allow to rest for 10mins. Preheat the tawa on medium-low heat.
Rolling the Laccha Parathas
- Roll the folded dough balls into roti/chappati-like round circles.
- The rolled-out parathas should be thicker than a roti/chappati but thinner than a £1 coin.
- Cook on medium-low heat initially, without any ghee/fat
- Cooking initially on low heat cooks out the starch.
- Ensure that any raw parts of dough are cooked through before proceeding to the next stage of cooking.
- When the parathas gets some colour on both sides, increase the heat to medium. Add in a tsp of ghee/oil
- Cook until the paratha is at your desired level of doneness. Cook longer for a crispy paratha.
- Chalo Laccha Paratha kawa
Questions
- Can I use chappati flour?
- Can I use butter instead of ghee?
I saw a method to get a uniform distribution of flour on the oil is to mix them together in a bowl and then use a brush to paint the layer of flour oil. I’ve done this and it’s worked for me every time.
Thanks for the feedback Timmy! I will give it a go. Can’t wait to see some of your recipe recreations.