Once rolled, the chapati are cooked in a hot dry skillet, just like tortilla. After that the magic happens! I turned a burner to low on my gas stove and set a cooked chapati on the flame. Suddenly, it puffed - not unlike a pita bread. After that, I was hooked! I've made chapati 4 times in as many weeks. I'm not yet puffing consistently, so there will be multiple blog entries for the chapati.
I'm not yet certain if it's the initial cooking, the amount of burner heat, the thickness, the level of gluten that impact the puff. My best puff occured when I first tortilla pressed, then lightly hand rolled (suggesting less gluten = good). The burner was on a low-med heat. Other chapati in the same batch were only hand rolled and puffed less.
For the most recent batch, the chapati that puffed best were cooked slightly longer initially. I pressed, then rolled all of these. I used a lower burner heat and moved the chapati around for the puff.
Photos from round 4 (they have unpuffed already but have nice markings):
Next time I'll shoot right after puff for full effect!
Recipe:
1c whole wheat flour
1c all purpose flour
2/3c water
2t canola oil
fix flours together.
add oil.
add water.
mix until forms cohesive dough.
knead for a couple minutes.
rest for 20 minutes.
cut into 8. roll into balls.
roll out.
cook in dry skillet over med-high heat for about a minute per side.
turn burner to low.
put chapati one at a time over burner, moving around to prevent fire.
once one side has nice burn marks, flip over.
