ROTI STYLE BREAD

Roti is something I have never attempted in my years of cooking. I have always taken the easy, or lazy, way out and simply bought it when needed. Anyway, I saw it on a cooking show recently and decided to have a go having been motivated by the price of this stuff in the shops lately.

So here is my first attempt. I tried two different ways to stretch the dough--one by flipping/whipping the dough and the other by flattening and massaging the dough into a large rectangle, the latter giving the better results.

RECIPE

500 gms plain flour ( the softer the better )

40 gms butter

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1 egg

1 cup water

Vegetable oil

Sieve flour, salt and sugar together.
Rub the butter into the flour mixture.

Lightly beat the egg and pour into a well in the flour mixture and gently work

in with your fingertips.

Make a well in the centre and add the water and then work to a dough, and then

knead for about 5 minutes until smooth. If your dough seems to wet or sticky you can

knead in extra flour until you achieve a smooth consistency.

Divide the dough into approx 12--14 pieces and form into balls. Place in a bowl, cover with oil

and set aside for approx 4--6 hours.

Take a piece of dough and gently pat out to a rectangular shape
and continue to massage the dough to a larger and larger rectangle,
(You will be surprised how far you can stretch this dough),
until almost paper thin and see through.

Then start to loosely roll the dough into a long cylinder.

Pick the dough up from one end and coil into a snail shape.

 Repeat process until all balls of dough are coiled.

Heat a little oil in a pan, gently flatten the coils to approx 3 times the size

taking care not to knock out all of the air, and place in pan.

When golden brown on one side, turn and brush the cooked side
with some melted butter or margarine and continue to fry until golden
 brown on the other side.
Remove from the pan, place on your bench and cup your
hands around the cooked roti.
Now quickly slap your hands together and quickly release.
Rotate the Roti and repeat and viola , there you have it, golden
flaky Roti Bread at a fraction of the price.