Chapati is perhaps the most popular type of bread in India. Even very young girls bake them with the greatest ease on open fires or on a chulha and often laugh at my misshapen tryouts. It's not so easy to make a perfect, beautifully round chapati with the simplest of ingredients (namely wheat flour and water). When I am at home I can hide behind the excuse that atta, the finely ground flour, the type used for baking these breads in India, is hard to get But when you mix all purpose flour and wheat flour in equal quantities you are pretty close. Recipe & instructions below the video.

WHAT YOU NEED

FOR THE DOUGH

• 140 g whole wheat flour

• 140 g plain flour (extra for dusting)

• 1 tsp salt

• 2 tbsp olive oil

• 180 ml warm water (more if needed)
  

THIS IS WHAT YOU DO

• Mix the two types of flour in a bowl.

• Use your hands to mix the oil and the water to for it to become smooth dough that doesn’t stick. Make about ten small balls of equal size and leave them for a moment.

• Heat a lightly oiled frying pan and meanwhile roll the dough balls into a round (!), thin slices of about breakfast plate format.

• Fry until the bottom side shows brown spots (after about 30 seconds) repeat the same with the other side.

• Do this with all the balls and keep the chapattis warm on a slightly damp, clean kitchen towel that you have folded closed. Serve as soon as possible.