Malabar parotha is a south Indian layered flatbread known for its flaky texture. This Kerala parotta is the ultimate bread for enjoying curry and gravy-based meals. This parotta recipe is perfect and never fails to make soft yet flaky layered paratha.
Malabar region is the present-day state of Kerala. Hence this parotha is also called Kerala Parotha. And in south India, this is the basic form of paratha; hence, locally, it is called parotta.
You will love this recipe as:
- Approachable. It does not use any fancy ingredients. Everything must be there in your pantry already.
- It is a very versatile flatbread that can be enjoyed with all sorts of meals.
- This parotha is not as difficult to make as it looks. Follow the simple steps, and you will have the perfect Kerala recipes.
- This Malabar parotha recipe yields the perfect flaky, layered parotha every time.
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🥘Ingredients required for making Malabar Parotha
All-purpose flour
Malabar parotha needs a high gluten flour for making them. So whole wheat flour will not make an excellent Malabar parotta. Its north Indian counterpart, lachha paratha, is conventionally made with whole wheat flour, but you can also use maida.
But for making Malabar parotta, do not use whole wheat flour, as it just does not give the flakey layers, and the texture is different.
Sugar
The purpose of adding sugar is not flavor but color. Adding sugar to the dough makes the parotta golden brownish on cooking. The sugar in the dough caramelizes on cooking and gives a gorgeous deep golden-brown color to the Malabar paratha.
Instead of white cane sugar, you can add other forms of sugar. But just ensure that you choose some neutral-colored sugar. For example, adding brown sugar will make the dough brownish. If you are vegan, go for vegan sugar with pale or white color. I would not suggest using coconut sugar, molasses, jaggery, brown sugar, etc., as they will alter the color of the dough.
Baking powder
Well, baking is not an essential ingredient for making parotta dough. But in my experience, it does help with the texture of the parotta. It prevents the parathas from getting rubbery, dense, and chewy during storage. Baking powder makes them slightly airy and soft. It is important to use baking powder judiciously—one-eighth of a teaspoon per cup of flour.
Vegetable Oil
Yes, this recipe needs a lot of oil than it appears from looking at the Malabar parotha. They do not look super greasy and oily after cooking, but they take a lot of oil to make. We will need 2 teaspoon oil to make the dough, but way more oil for rolling and cooking the parotha is required. Use your favorite oil. Choose a low-cholesterol vegetable oil. You can also use olive or avocado oil, but they have a strong flavor, not characteristic of conventional parotta.
Milk
Milk is essential as it makes our parotha soft and tender. Use whole milk for better results, though you can use 2 percent milk also. If you are lactose intolerant, use the plant-based milk of your choice.
Salt
Use regular table salt in the dough for flavor.
Water
After adding milk, use water to make a soft, smooth dough. This recipe took 115 g of water. The clear water will vary from flour to flour. The best way is to add little water at a time, knead and add if more is required.
🔪How to make Malabar Parotha
Step 1 Kneading the dough.
In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients: all-purpose flour, salt, and baking powder. Using a whisk or fork, stir and mix everything well. Add oil and milk. Combine using the back of a spoon or something similar. Then transfer onto a floured surface and start kneading with your hands. Use the heel of your hands to stretch the dough away from you. Then, bring it back and collect it. Keep repeating this motion to knead the dough until it becomes smooth and stops sticking to the hands and the surface.
Then form it into a round and transfer it into a greased bowl. Grease the dough from the top and cover the bowl with a cling wrap or kitchen towel. Let the dough rest for 20 minutes. This rest is essential as gluten needs some time to relax, as we worked on it so much while kneading. You can extend the rest to 30 minutes if you have the luxury of time.
Step 2 Shaping the Malabar parotha
(Refer to images 1-9)
Now divide the dough into six equal parts. Then take each piece and shape it into a smooth round. Brush its top with oil and cover while you shape the rest of the dough balls. Cover all the dough rounds and let them rest for 15-20 minutes.
For rolling the parotta, start by putting oil on the work surface and spreading it evenly. Now, take a dough ball and press it with your hands to flatten it into a disk and a flatbread. You will need to oil or grease your hands while doing so. Keep stretching it outwards until it gets super thin.
The secret to the perfect Malabar parotha rests in the rolling on the parotta. The thinner the parotha you rolled, the better going to be the flakes on the parotha.
The professionals thin it out by flipping with hands. But it takes a lot of skill. At home, we can use the stretching out method. You must keep stretching it outward until it becomes a thin dough sheet. You can also use a rolling pin.
Now gather the thin dough sheet into a long ribbon-like strip with multiple folds (image 6). Roll it to form a round and tuck the edge under it.
Cover and let the dough ball rest until you roll and fold the remaining dough balls. Let them rest for 20 minutes before final rolling.
Step 3 Rolling and cooking
After the shaped parotha rounds have rested for 20 minutes, start rolling them into Malabar parothas.
Heat a skillet over a high flame. Place a shaped parotha on a hot skillet and press it. Flip and cook on the other side. Using a pastry brush, spread a teaspoon of vegetable oil evenly on the parotha. Flip the parotha and brush with vegetable oil. When the parotha is cooked well from both sides, remove it from the flame and cook the remaining Malabar parothas similarly.
Crush the cooked parotha 3 to 4 times between hands while it is still hot. Doing this helps to open up the layers of the parotha and makes it super flaky.
🍳How to serve Malabar parotha?
Malabar Parotta goes well with any sort of gravy dish. Serve them as flatbread alongside lunch or dinner meals. More popularly in the Malabar region, it is relished with beef curry or any vegetarian curry. It goes excellent with dry sabzi or dal alike.
🫙 Storage Tips
You can store the leftover Malabar parotha in an air-tight container or a ziplocked bag at room temperature for a day.
If you want to keep them for longer, cook them partially without using oil. Then let them cool completely and file with parchment paper between parathas. Then cover them with foil and place them in a freezer-safe ziplocked bag. They will store well for months.
♨ Reheating Instructions
To reheat the stored Kerala paratha, cook them on a hot skillet while brushing some oil over them. Flip and reheat on the skillet from both sides and serve.
You can also use an air fryer to reheat the leftover paratha. Reheat at 370 oF for 3-4 minutes in an air fryer until they become crispy and flaky again.
💭Pro Tips
- If possible, use high gluten flour for making the Malabar parotha. High gluten makes the dough highly extensible, and such dough will roll very thin without breaking.
- Adding a little bit of baking powder makes the layered paratha soft.
- Use whole milk at room temperature for best results.
- If you are vegan, use vegan sugar and replace milk with plant-based milk like oat or soy.
- Knead the dough very nicely. Take a good 12 to 15 minutes. Do a window pane test to see if the dough is ready.
- Rolling the dough very thin is the key to perfect layers on parotha. Make sure that the parotha is super light, like paper. Do not bother about a few holes in the rolled dough.
- To store them for longer, freeze the partially cooked parotha.
❓Frequently Asked Questions
Well, Malabar paratha does not fall into the healthy food category. It is pure carbs and fat food. It uses a lot of oil to make those gorgeous layers. But it is so delicious to miss. It is not an everyday paratha recipe. Once in a while, we can go for such indulgences.
The reasons could be many. But the main reason is underdeveloped gluten. Such parotha will be challenging to roll paper thin. Instead, they will tear apart when stretched until paper thin. When we stretch such dough, the folds or layers stick back in the dough and do not separate.
Secondly, you must be generous with oil while shaping layered paratha/Parotta. Fat helps the layers stay separate and open up later, crushing. It gets me to the third reason. It is not opening the layers when the parotha is still hot. Layers open up best when the parotha is still hot.
In north India, you can make most paratha recipes using whole wheat flour, but do not make Malabar paratha with whole wheat flour. They are not just the same. You can make lachha paratha, north Indian layered paratha with whole wheat flour.
🍽 More bread recipes
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- How to make Naan using the Sourdough Discard
- Fried sourdough starter to make your life easy: 5 recipes!
- Softest Multigrain bread
- The best garlic sourdough bread recipe
Indian recipes to serve with Malabar paratha
- Chana Dal in Instant Pot: No-soak Split Chickpea Lentil Curry
- Daal Palak | How to make Indian Palak dal recipe?
- Dal Makhani: No soak pressure cook recipe
- Sweet corn masala
- How to make Palak Paneer| Punjabi Palak Paneer recipe
I hope this Malabar paratha recipe will work for you. Do let me know how it went for you. If this recipe helped you, share it with your friends and leave a comment and rating. Subscribe to never miss a recipe.
Till then,
Make it quick and delicious!
📝 Recipe
Malabar parotha | Kerala Parotta recipe
Ingredients
Ingredients for the dough
- 300 g all-purpose flour (2 ¼ cup)
- 2 teaspoon white caster sugar
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoon oil
- 60 g Milk (¼ cup)
- 120 g water (about half a cup)
Ingredients for rolling and cooking the parotha
- ¼ cup of vegetable oil
Instructions
Step 1 Kneading the dough.
- In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients: all-purpose flour, salt, and baking powder. Using a whisk or fork, stir and mix everything well. Add oil and milk. Combine using the back of a spoon or something similar.
- Then transfer onto a floured surface and start kneading with your hands. Use the heel of your hands to stretch the dough away from you. Then, bring it back and collect it. Keep repeating this motion to knead the dough until it becomes smooth and stops sticking to the hands and the surface.
- Then form it into a round and transfer it into a greased bowl. Grease the dough from the top and cover the bowl with a cling wrap or kitchen towel. Let the dough rest for 20 minutes.
Step 2 Shaping the Malabar parotha
- Now divide the dough into six equal parts. Then take each piece and shape it into a smooth round.
- Brush its top with oil and cover while you shape the rest of the dough balls. Cover all the dough rounds and let them rest for 15-20 minutes.
- For rolling the parotta, start by oiling the work surface. Now, take a dough ball and press it with your oiled hands to flatten it into a disk and a flatbread. Then stretch it outwards while moving along its circumference. Keep stretching until it gets super thin. Another way to make a thin dough sheet is by using a rolling pin.
- Now gather the thin dough sheet into a long ribbon-like strip with multiple folds. Roll it to form a round and tuck the edge under it.
- Cover and let the dough ball rest until you roll and fold the remaining dough balls. Let them all rest for 20 minutes before final rolling.
Step 3 Rolling and cooking
- Now, start rolling them into Malabar parothas.
- Heat a skillet over a high flame. Place a rolled parotha on a hot skillet and press it. Flip and cook on the other side. Using a pastry brush, spread a teaspoon of vegetable oil evenly on the parotha. Flip the parotha and brush with vegetable oil. When the parotha is cooked well from both sides, remove it from the flame. Cook the remaining Malabar parothas similarly.
- Crush the cooked parotha 3 to 4 times between hands while it is still hot. Doing this helps to open up the layers of the parotha and makes it super flaky.
- Serve hot with your favorite curry or sabzi.
Notes
- If possible, use high gluten flour for making the Malabar parotha. High gluten makes the dough highly extensible, and such dough will roll very thin without breaking.
- Adding a little bit of baking powder makes the layered paratha soft. • Resting the dough is essential as gluten needs some time to relax, as we worked on it so much while kneading.
- Use whole milk at room temperature for best results.
- If you are vegan, use vegan sugar and replace milk with plant-based milk like oat or soy.
- Knead the dough very nicely. Take a good 12 to 15 minutes. Do a window pane test to see if the dough is ready.
- Rolling the dough very thin is the key to perfect layers on parotha. Make sure that the parotha is super light, like paper. Do not bother about a few holes in the rolled dough.
- To store them for longer, freeze the partially cooked parotha.
📋 Nutrition Facts
Sunaina Kalia
Now I know why my parothas were never flaky. Excellent write-up. Followed your instructions to the core. I guess using baking powder does help with the texture. Thanks for the recipe dear.