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Bhakri

Millet flour and hot water, flattened by hand rather than rolled.

Vegan.

Ingredients

Method

  1. MILLET FLOUR AND HOT WATER, FLATTENED BY HAND RATHER THAN ROLLED. Its article gives both and the reason behind them: bhakri is prepared using JOWAR OR BAJRA, WHICH MAKE A COARSER BREAD than regular wheat chapati flour, and the dough is prepared by MIXING JOWAR FLOUR WITH HOT WATER AND THEN FLATTENED BY HAND. Millet has no gluten, so there is nothing to stretch and a rolling pin only cracks it. Hot water gelatinises enough starch to hold the dough together, which is the only thing holding it together, and the hand can feel where it is thin.
  2. THE WATER IS GENUINELY HOT, NOT WARM. Just off the boil, poured onto the flour and stirred with a spoon before it is cool enough to touch.
  3. IT IS KNEADED HOT AND FOR A LONG TIME. Five or six minutes, as hot as the hands will take, until it is smooth. Under-kneaded millet dough falls apart on the pat.
  4. IT IS PATTED IN A CIRCLE, TURNING, WITH DRY FLOUR UNDER. On a board or a damp cloth, the palm working from the middle out, the disc turned a quarter after every few pats.
  5. IT IS PICKED UP ON THE PALM, NOT THE FINGERTIPS. The disc has no strength. Slide a hand flat underneath and lay it onto the pan in one movement.
  6. THE PAN IS HOT AND IT IS WETTED ON TOP. The usual handling: water smeared over the upper face once the underside has set, which steams it through.
  7. IT CAN BE SOFT OR HARD AND ITS ARTICLE MAKES THE COMPARISON. Bhakri can be either soft or hard in texture, UNLIKE KHAKHRA, WHICH IS ALWAYS HARD -- and Khakhra, as on its own page, is here to compare it with. A soft bhakri comes off the pan after two minutes a side; a hard one is dried out over the flame.
  8. SEVEN GRAINS ARE NAMED AND THEY ARE NOT INTERCHANGEABLE. Its article lists jowar, bajra, makai, ragi, rice, wheat and a pulse bhakri of urad or urad and jowar. Bajra is made mostly in winter; rice bhakri belongs to the coast; the wheat one is bigger and deeper with proportionally more oil.
  9. IT IS EATEN WITH SOMETHING DRY AND HOT. A jhunka or a pounded chilli relish is the usual pairing.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under India · All recipes