Kerala Parotta Recipe (Malabar Kerala Style Coin Paratha/Porotta Recipe) Without Eggs – South Indian Layered Flatbread Recipe

Instructions

Preparing The Dough

• In a large bowl, mix well the dry ingredients together - all purpose flour, atta flour, salt and suagr very well until evenly mixed.
• Add the warm water little by little to the dry flour mixture and knead well until you have made the wet dough from the flour mixture. In case more water is needed, add more warm water little by little. You may also add a little more all purpose flour and knead again, if the dough is too sticky.
• Add oil to the dough and knead well until you get a dough which is not sticky but which is soft, little loose in texture and bounce back when gently pressed. I used about 6 tablespoons of oil to achieve this texture of dough, you will need to add the oil little by little until the desired consistency is achieved.
• Once the dough is prepared, keep the dough closed for about 30 minutes.

The Process For Making Dough Balls And Flattening And Layering Them

• After 30 minutes of resting the dough, knead the dough again a few times and then make equal sized balls out of the dough and arrange them in a large plate or flat surface which is greased with oil. 
• Add a spoon of oil on top of each ball and let them rest for another few minutes (say about 5 minutes). If you find it difficult to handle the dough, you can grease your palms with oil or ghee which will help. Make sure to prepare little large sized balls than you make for chapathis, as it will be too difficult on work on small sized balls.
• Meanwhile, mix the ghee and softened butter together in a separate bowl, keep this mixture aside.
• Once the dough balls have rested for a while, start working on the first dough ball. Place the dough ball in a large work space area which is clean and greased with oil, and then roll the ball very thinly as much as possible using a regular rolling pin. It might look little difficult to roll the balls thinly, if you are at it for the first time. 
• Make sure to grease the work surface and also the rolling pin whit little oil if needed and roll it as thinly as possible, even if the rolled dough breaks a little and some tiny holes are formed it is totally fine. All you need is to roll the ball as thinly as possible, you can use the oil a little generously if that helps.
• Once the ball is rolled thin as much as possible, use a knife ( a plastic knife will also work) to cut the rolled dough into thin and long vertical lines or strips. You may cut the line from the top to bottom, making the cut stripes entirely separate from each other, or you can leave out the top and bottom ends which will make the remaining of the process more easier.
• Generously spread one or two spoons of ghee butter mixture across the thin cut strips of dough, and spread it evenly using your hands or brush.
• Now start placing one strip over the other until you have stacked all strips together, if this is difficult, you can just start moving and rolling the strips one over the other using your hands towards the other end so finally you get all the strips together. The strips are the one that will help bring the layers in the parottas and since we have applied the butter ghee mixture over the strips, they will still retain the layers when you cook the parottas, though they looks different at this point, which looks quite long and string like.
• Add some more ghee butter mixture to the long string that you made from the strips, and then gently elongate the string a little more.
• Now start rolling it coil like, starting from one end and roll it like a coil until the further end, and place the next end underneath the coil that you made, just like you make for challah breads. Transfer the coiled dough to a well greased and clean flat surface, you may also use a large plate.
• Repeat the process and make all the dough balls into coil like and place them all in a large greased flat surface separately.
• Add a spoon of ghee butter mixture (if you have that remaining) or a spoon of oil on top of each coiled dough, spread across the surface with the spoon or brush it evenly and let them rest for another 10 minutes.

Cooking The Parottas (parathas or layered flatbread)

• Once the dough coils have rested enough, let us start making the parottas or parathas. Heat an iron pan or non stick pan which is greased with oil or ghee. Keep the heat medium to low as the parottas need to be cooked little slowly for best results.
• In a greased flat surface, place the first coiled dough and gently press it down with your palms (apply some oil or ghee in your hands before you start working on it), you can press it down until you can make it thin (you can make it as thin as you prefer) and as large as you want it. You can also use a rolling pin, but I think using your hands will help more with retaining the layers. You can make the parottas slightly thick or thin as you like, personally I prefer to make it thin which will be soft, flaky with little crisp layers. Adding a drop oil or ghee once you start working on this will make it more easy to do.
• Once the greased pan is hot enough (do not make it too hot), place the flattened or rolled dough on to the heated pan and sprinkle a little oil or ghee across the surface almost evenly. Cook both sides of the parotta by flipping a few times until slightly light golden brown in color and well cooked inside.
• Transfer the cooked parotta to a serving plate.
• Similarly cook up to 5 to 6 parottas and stack them all together. While they are still warm use your hands to squeeze or press the parottas from both sides (while they are stacked together) which will help the layers to get separated. You need to do this while the parottas are still warm or it will be hard to break the layers once they are cooled.
• Repeat the process and cook all the remaining parottas, stack them together and break the layers using your hands, while the parottas are still warm.