How to make Roti dough

It's time to test your kneading skills, and what better way to do that, than to attempt making your own roti dough?

I used to watch my grandmother, and my mother kneeling on the floor with a large dish of dough in front of them, and using their fists, they would knead away at this soft, elastic dough. It was fun to watch actually :-) Sometimes getting up from the floor would be a challenge for their arthritic knees.  As time went by, they would use a chair on which the dish of dough would be placed and they would knead the dough standing in front of the chair.  I guess it had a lot to do with ergonomics. They were short women, like me :-)

So, let's begin:

If you would like 12 - 14 rotis, you will need:

1. A large mixing bowl
2. 4 Cups of flour,
3. Boiled water in a kettle
4. 1 Teaspoon salt
5. 2 Tablespoon Sugar
6. 11/2 Tablespoon butter or margarine per cup of flour
7. 1 Tablespoon sunflower oil per cup of flour

Sift the flour in a mixing bowl, add the salt, sugar, margarine or butter and oil, and mix in with a large spoon.

Add the boiling water from the kettle gradually and stir, slowly.  This step is all about you being one with the dough and knowing when to stop adding water. The dough should stick together in clumps but it should not be too wet.

Allow the hot dough to rest for about 5 - 10 minutes. Then begin kneading with your hands. Using your fist makes for better kneading.

When the dough is kneaded into a roughly round elastic dough, turn out onto a smooth surface and knead with both hands.  

Once kneaded, set the dough back into the mixing bowl to rest.

Cover the dough and it can rest for as long you like until you are ready to roll them. Anything from between one hour to six hours.

When you are ready to roll your rotis, remove the dough from the bowl, knead some more and if you need to add flour to the surface, do so, but not too much.

Then measure each roti portion in to 100g portions. This ensures that your rotis are even in size.

Further knead each roti portion and flatten into discs. You can further keep the roti disc portions for rolling out when it's time to eat, or you can freeze them in cling wrap and freeze for thawing and rolling out another day.

Rolling out is easy... and my mother once said...."No one will marry you if your rotis are not round" But don't stress, if it's not round, it's still edible and delicious :-)

See previous blog entry for How to Toast a Roti  to complete your roti challenge :-)

Happy Cooking :-)