Batura - Deep Fried Leavened Indian Bread

Who doesn't like Batura, the leavened deep fried bread. While pooris are made in a lot of South Indian homes Baturas are not that common. It is an occasional treat but making it took me this long because it is just easier to eat it at the restaurants. It is something we don't do that often because the kids don't like eating at Indian restaurants since they eat Indian food at home everyday. I don't like eating at Indian restaurants since for the price we pay most restaurants don't do that good Indian food anyway. Well I digressed.

But once you make batura at home, its soft and crunchy texture is going to tempt you to make it at home. The reason I never made it at home is wondering why to bother with yeast and rising and all of that. I used the recipe in a Mallika Badrinath's Tiffin cookbook and it did not have yeast.



I usually use avocado oil or safflower oil for cooking but for deep frying I use canola oil. Make sure you have some channa masala prepared before you set about making batura. Make the dough before preparing channa masala and let it rest for 2 hours or so.

Mix the flour, soda and salt. Add the yogurt and the milk little by little to make a pliable dough.
Once the dough has rested for at least 45 minutes, set the oil for heating.
Take a small lemon sized ball of dough, put it on a rolling board and dust it with dry flour and roll into a 2-3 inches round.
Gently drop the rolled dough into the hot oil.
Gently press on the dough in the oil to let it puff, flip and let it cook on the other side.

It is a nice recipe to cook with kids. They can help with rolling the dough out. Unlike whole wheat the white all purpose flour is a bit elastic and does not tear that easily.

Serve batura with the channa masala and a wedge of lime and some sliced onions.

Batura
Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 30-40 minutes
Ingredients

1. 3 cups of unbleached white flour
2. 2 tsp of baking soda
3. 3/4 cup of plain yogurt
4. 1 tsp salt
5. 1 1/2 cups of milk

Method

1. In a mixing bowl, take the flour, salt and baking soda and mix it with the yogurt. Use the milk just enough to bring the dough together into a pliable dough.
2. Cover the dough and let it sit for about 45 minutes to 2 hours.
3. Set the oil for deep frying. I used a smaller pan, so rolled out the batura smaller. So make it smaller or bigger depending on the size of the frying pan.
4. Make small lemon sized ball and using dry flour roll it out into 2-3 inch rounds. **
5. Once the oil is hot add in the rolled dough, cook it on one side, press gently with the spatula to let it puff on one side. Flip and cook on the other side till golden brown.
6. Drain on paper towels.

Serve with Channa Masala.

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