Pleated Masala Khasta Bread

I got this recipe from Nita Mehta's book. The bread is very "khasta", not sure how to translate that to english - maybe you could say butter crisp. It's not crisp like potato chips but crisp like phyllo pastry. You can fill the bread with any filling of your choice. The original recipe called for a mushroom filling but since we don't eat mushrooms I made a potato filling like the one used for samosa.

For the bread:

Ingredients:

1. 2 cups all purpose flour


2. 1/2 cup butter (cold)


3. 1 tsp baking powder


4. 3/4 tsp salt


5. 1/2 cup milk


6. 1/4 tsp ajwain (carrom seeds)

Method:

1. Sieve the flour, baking powder and salt together.


2. Cut butter into small cubes. Rub the butter lightly into the flour till it resembles like bread crumbs.


3. Add milk and kneead lightly to form a dough.


4. Cover and keep aside in a cool place or in the fridge till you have the filling ready.


5. Roll out the dough into a square about 10" long. It's more important that the dough layer be thin - so if it's coming out longer than 10" that's fine.


6. Imagine that the square is divided into 3 parts and leaving the center part intact, divide the corner most parts into diagonal strips around 1/2" inch in width.


7. Spread the filling in the center.


8. "Close" the bread by overlapping the diagonal strips alternately from each side.


9. Bake in an oven at 350 F for 40-50 minutes till the top is golden brown and crisp.

For the filling:

The instructions for the filling are somewhat hand-wavy because I never measure them. So I would say go with your instinct and adjust according to your taste buds.
Ingredients:

1. 3 medium size boiled potatoes, chopped
2. 1/2 cup chopped onions
3. 1/2 cup peas
4. 1 tsp turmeric
5. 1 tsp red chilli powder
6. 1 tsp dhania powder (coriander powder)
7. 1 tsp amchur (dry mango powder)
8. 3 tsp oil
9. salt to taste

Method:

1. Heat oil at medium heat and then fry the onions till golden brown.
2. Add the dry spices (except amchur). Fry for 15-30 seconds.
3. Add the potatoes, peas, salt and amchur. Mix well.
4. Taste it to see if the spices are per your taste. It's better to have the filling spicier than your level. The spicyness gets toned down because of the bread.

My family absolutely loved this bread!