Gur ki roti, the meethi roti from a village kitchen

Jaggery kneaded straight into the atta, cooked on a tawa with ghee. Winter breakfast in our house, and the easiest thing on this page.

Winter breakfast · Prep 15 min · Cook 15 min · Total 45 min · Makes 6 rotis · North Indian breakfast

Gur ki roti is what a village kitchen makes when there is jaggery in the house and half an hour before school. The gur goes into the dough itself, so there is no stuffing to escape and no filling to go wrong.

It is eaten hot off the tawa with a lump of white butter, and it is the first thing most of us learned to cook.

Two ways to make it

Kneaded in, which is what is written below, and stuffed, which is gur ka paratha. The kneaded version is quicker and travels better in a tiffin. The stuffed one is richer and is in the tips at the end.

Ingredients

• 2 cups (about 250 g) Whole wheat flour (atta)
• ½ cup (about 100 g) ShuddhGaon jaggery powder
• ¾ cup, approximately Warm water
• 2 tbsp for the dough, plus more for the tawa Ghee
• ½ tsp Fennel seeds (saunf)
• A pinch Salt

Method

1. Dissolve the jaggery Stir the jaggery powder into the warm water until it has completely dissolved. Let it cool until it is only just warm to the finger.
2. Mix the dough Put the atta, the pinch of salt, the saunf and the 2 tbsp of ghee in a bowl and rub them together. Add the jaggery water in stages and bring it into a dough.
3. Knead and rest Knead for 3 to 4 minutes into a soft dough, a little softer than your usual roti dough. Cover it and leave it for 15 minutes.
4. Divide and roll Split into six balls. Roll each one out to about 6 inches, dusting generously with dry atta, because a sweet dough sticks more than a plain one.
5. Cook on a medium tawa Heat a tawa on medium, never high. Put the roti on, wait until small bubbles rise, then flip. Spread ghee on the cooked side, flip again, and press gently with a cloth or a spatula until both sides carry brown spots.
6. Serve straight away These are best within a minute of coming off the tawa, with white butter, plain curd or a cup of chai.

With our jaggery

Powder is the right form here: it dissolves in warm water without leaving grains that would tear the roti as you roll it. If you only have our cubes, break them up and give them five minutes in the warm water, then strain the liquid before it goes into the atta. Our gur has nothing added to keep its colour uniform, so a darker jar gives a noticeably browner roti. It makes no difference to how it cooks.

Tips from our kitchen

• Watch the flame, not the clock Jaggery in the dough browns faster than plain atta. On a high tawa you get dark spots before the inside is cooked, so keep it at medium throughout.
• To make gur ka paratha instead Knead a plain atta dough. Mix ½ cup jaggery powder with 2 tbsp of coarse atta or grated coconut, stuff a portion into each ball, seal it, roll gently and cook with ghee. The dry atta soaks up the melting gur so it does not run out.
• For a tiffin box Cook them a shade lighter, cool them fully on a rack, then stack. Wrapped warm, they steam themselves soft.

The jaggery this recipe is made with

• ShuddhGaon Jaggery Powder — Fine gur shakkar that melts into tea, coffee and milk
• ShuddhGaon Jaggery Combo — Cubes for the cup, powder for the kitchen

More recipes with gur

• Thekua, the Chhath prasad made with atta and gur
• Gur ki chai, made so the milk never splits
• Til gur ke laddoo for Lohri and Makar Sankranti

All jaggery recipes