Indian Breads and Doughs

One of the main ingredients in most of the varieties of bread in India, is Atta. Atta is a whole wheat flour grown from the wheat that grows in many parts of India. You can make flat bread from atta, such as chapati and roti. These breads are a major part of the cuisine found in India. You will sometimes see it called, Ata, and most all Indian grocers sell it. 

It used to be that atta was made by grinding wheat at home. They would grind wheat in a homemade stone grinder called "chakki".  It is most often very finely ground.  Atta is known for its high fiber content. It has a lot of bran as well as having a lot of gluten. The doughs can be very strong and rolled fairly thin. There are also many other nutrients in atta, besides the bran.

The breads talked about in this hub, are all unleavened breads.

Puri is another bread from Indian cuisine. It can be eaten for breakfast or a light meal. They are kind of like a pancake. The dough is made from atta, and salt. The dough is often spread out in one's palm, in a circle shape, and fried in ghee. Ghee is the clarified butter that is well known throughout Indian cuisine, and has been written about in the ayurvedic texts. It is a very prized oil/fat, and has been for some time.

Puris could be described as whole wheat pancakes which are popular in certain parts of India. They are rather versatile, and can be a great accompaniment to spicy sauces and curries.

Some people enjoy making puri from whole wheat flour, or a combination of whole wheat and white flour. Its really simple, with water, salt, and the oil you choose, then deep fry it. They cook rather quickly in the oil, and need to be turned once. I think it would be great to visit India some day, and try it using their authentic flours and their ghee. What a treat that would be, to dip some into one of their spicier sauces or curries! You can find exact recipes for this bread, in Indian cookbooks and online.

There is a video below, on Puri, should you want to learn more about it.

There are different kinds of roti variations, and they are like a flatbread as well, that is eaten throughout most all of India. You may not find it as readily in Southern India. Roti is most often served with a type of vegetable, or sabzi. While it may be eaten any time of the day, it is mainly known also as a breakfast bread. In that sense it is similar to Puri.

There are some ways you can try to imitate authentic Roti, and I would suggest a good Indian cookbook, checked out from any library or look online to try out some different ideas. One Indian cook that I came across said she makes a Roti that can be used with all Indian dishes.

There is a whole wheat tandoori style roti, that sounds wonderful, and a bit like chapati. There is a way that is easier to make it, using a concave tava, but you can use a cast iron frying pan as well.

The video below shows one of the ways to make roti.