2-layer Roti/Gujarati Padd Rotli

Recipe contributed by: Dhara Balwa

Mango season is here and I am so delighted! We found really good mangoes that taste good as pulp. They are mexican mangoes. Nothing beats the Indian Kesar and Alfanso mangoes though. But they are a good substitute. There is a special gujarati roti that is specially served with mango pulp called Padd(meaning layer) roti. And I call it 'See-Through' roti (I will show you why as we go further.) It is a little tricky to have it right and requires practice. I make them well but it takes more time for me to make them compared to regular rotis. Experts actually make twice the size of padd I make but my roti pan is smaller to accommodate the bigger size. I would encourage to keep practicing and not get disheartened if you don't get it right the first time. You can also first try to make them the thickness of regular roti and once you get the rhythm, you can start decreasing the thickness of individual layer.

Right image: Just look at my fingers through this paper thin roti

Servings: 16 individual layers
Prep time: 20 min; Cook time: 15 min
Difficulty level: Medium-Difficult

Ingredients:

1 cup Whole Wheat Flour
A little less then 1/2 cup Water
1 1/2 tsp. Oil
Salt as per taste
Oil to spread in between layer
Ghee/Clarified Butter to apply once roti is cooked
Whole Wheat flour for dusting

Method:

1) In a mixing bowl, add the flour, salt and oil and mix it with hands. Gradually add water, combing the flour and water to form the dough at the same time. It should take around 5 minutes to form a nice soft dough. It shouldn't be very soft and sticky though. If you feel it is sticky, add couple tablespoons of flour. Once the dough is formed, just coat the outside of the dough with oil to make it non-sticky and easy to work with. Divide the dough is 8 equal parts.

2) Heat the flat pan on which you will cook roti on medium high heat. In the meanwhile, take one dough ball and again divide it in two equal parts and make thick flat discs as shown in picture below on the left.

Left: Two small flat discs; Right: Two medium rolled rotis, one of which has oil spread on it
 

3) Dip both the sides of the dough in flour generously. With rolling pin, roll both the rotis of equal size as shown in the right side image above. On one of the roti, coat with a layer of oil making sure it is coated through the edges.

4) Put the roti without oil on top of the other and pat it lightly so they are sort of joined together as shown in the left side image below.

Left: Rotis layered on each other; Right: Final version of rolling
 

5) Again, dust generously with flour, and with rolling pin start thinning the roti. Use flour to dust when needed in-between. Be patient and careful not to have any pinches in the roti as when you will cook the roti, they will not separate and tear from where the layers are pinched together. My final version is shown in the picture above.

6) Put the roti on the pan to cook and when half cooked, flip on the other side and let it cook completely. This roti is not supposed to have many brown spots. So, as soon as you see light brown spots, that side is done. Flip again on partially cooked side and once cooked completely, take it off the heat. These rotis cook fast so keep an eye on them.

Left: How to separate the layers; Right: Two separated layers

7) You will notice that, when the roti is almost cooked, there is steam coming out from some pocket. That is where you start peeling and separating the layers from. Look the picture of the left where I am half way through. And in the picture on the right, they are completely separated.

8) Apply ghee on one of the layers on the inside and cover it as it was when being cooked and apply ghee again on the top. That way, both the layer have ghee. One on inside and one on outside.

9) Repeat the above steps with the remaining 7 dough balls.

Serve with Mango pulp and your favorite vegetable.