Indian Hard Tack (Baati)

Baati is a hard, unleavened bread cooked in desert areas of Rajasthan, Malwa, and Gujarat in North India.

Ingredients

• 1 pound (450 g) wheat flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons oil
• Water
• 1 ½ teaspoons ghee (for serving)

Steps

1. Mix the flour and salt.
2. Put about 1 cup of flour mixture in a small bowl and add a little oil, mixing it in well and breaking up any lumps.
3. Add water about 1 tablespoon at a time and keep kneading with your hands. You only need 3–4 tablespoons, but you must knead the dough very hard to make it stick together in a ball. The more compact the dough, the better and denser the baati will be.
4. Let the balls sit for 5 minutes.
5. Flatten out each ball with first your hands and then a rolling pin until they are smooth discs 4 inches (10 cm) across and ½ inch (1.25 cm) thick.
6. Cook in a dry metal pan on a low flame. Flip once when the bottom begins to harden, then pinch all over with two fingers so the dough is not too thick and has a bumpy texture on one side.
7. Check the bottom until it browns in spots, then remove the baati and place it upside-down on a grate or pan with holes in it. This will blacken the top a little, especially on the tops of the pinched bumps.
8. To serve, drizzle liberally with ghee and accompany with a dhal or vegetable.

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Adapted from “Indian Hard Tack (Baati)” in the Wikibooks Cookbook by its contributors, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Reformatted for this site; this page's recipe text is shared under the same license.