How to Make Soft Maharashtrian Chapatis

Soft Layered Chapati Recipe

Here’s a detailed tutorial on how to make perfect Maharashtrian chapatis, no matter which brand of atta you use, or if you prefer to have the flour ground in a local mill from wheat of your choice. It’s the perfect soft chapati recipe, ideal for beginners for making soft chapati with layers. This is also called ghadichi poli in Marathi.

If you would rather grind the wheat in a mill, the two best varieties of wheat for making soft chapatis are lokwan and sharbati. If you prefer to use readymade packaged atta, then go for any of the reputed and established brands.

For soft layered chapatis, the atta has to be superfine. Second, you need to use as little flour as possible for rolling out the chapatis. And third, you have to apply as little force or pressure with your rolling pin while rolling out the chapatis. Roll them with a light hand.

Some other Pat-a-Cake recipes, you might find interesting are my detailed recipes for Soft and Healthy Tortillas, Oats dosa and uttapam, Rice flour dosas, Goan polle, and Jowar parathas.

Ingredients

1 cup (125g) atta (whole wheat flour)

⅓ tsp salt

1 tsp oil

½ cup warm water, approximately

A little more oil

Some more flour

Makes four to five layered chapatis

Procedure

1. Add loosened atta to a large bowl or a parath (a large, deep steel thali/plate). Add the salt and ½ tsp oil.
2. Make a well in the centre of the flour and add in the water, a little at a time to knead a soft, pliable dough that’s not too soft or too firm. The better you knead the dough, the softer the chapatis will be.
3. Add the remaining ½ tsp oil and knead the dough for a few seconds. Shape it into a ball and then drizzle a little oil on it to coat it completely. Cover and set it aside to rest for around 15 minutes.
4. Divide the dough into 4 or 5 balls.
5. Dust the rolling board with a generous amount of flour. Roll a ball of dough in it. Flatten the dough and roll it out into a small disc around 3 inches in diameter. Smear a few drops of oil on half of it. Add a sprinkling of flour over this and then fold the dough disc to form a semi-circle. Smear a few drops of oil on half of this as well and add a sprinkling of flour. Fold it to form a quarter circle. Press the edges and then dust a little flour on both sides.
6. Similarly roll out the remaining dough balls, smear them with oil, etc. to finally get a quarter circle / triangular shape from each one.
7. Dust the rolling board with flour and roll a quarter-circle shaped dough portion into a medium thin disc, around 7 inches in diameter, applying only light pressure on it with the rolling pin while rolling it out. It requires skill and practice to get the original triangular shaped dough to acquire a circular shape. But it need not be a perfect circle. Just take care not to use too much force or pressure while rolling out the chapati. Also, use a minimum quantity of flour to roll out the chapati disc, flipping it a couple of times at least while rolling it out. The chapati should be very slightly thicker in the centre.
8. Roll out the other folded dough triangles into circular-shaped chapatis too, and arrange them on a thali dusted with flour, adding a sprinkling of flour on each chapati to keep them from sticking to each other.
9. Transfer the first chapati to a hot tawa, pre-heated on a medium-high flame for around 3 minutes. A few seconds later, after the chapati develops small bubbles on the top, flip it over to cook the other side. Move it around on the tawa and drizzle oil on it, and when the chapati starts puffing up, flip it over again. Drizzle a little oil on this other side too, move it around for a few seconds and let the chapati puff on this side as well. Flip the chapati one or two times more till it develops small pale brown spots on both sides.
10. Then take the puffed chapati off the tawa and holding it vertically over a plate, squash it down lightly to release some of the steam from inside it. Then spread it out flat on a sieve or upturned shallow colander to prevent steam from condensing on its underside and making it soggy.
11. Similarly, fry the rest of the chapatis on the tawa with a little oil, stacking the fried chapatis on the colander. Please refer to the video to get a better idea on how to roll out and make soft chapatis.
12. When all the chapatis are fried, transfer them to a chapati container with a lid and lined with a paper towel. Enjoy the chapatis when they’re warm. But the leftover ones will stay soft inside the container till the next day.

Enjoy!