KO EN Malaysian Bread⏱ 60 minEdit history

Roti Canai (Coiled, Griddled Flatbread with Curry)

Name: Roti Canai (Coiled, Griddled Flatbread with Curry)
Prep time: 40 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 1 h
Yield: 8 servings
Cuisine: Malaysian
Ingredients: 500 g plain flour; 250 ml water; 3 tbsp condensed milk; 1 egg; 1.5 tsp salt; 2 tbsp ghee or melted butter; 200 ml neutral oil; 4 tbsp ghee; 4 ladles dal or chicken curry

Malaysian breakfast bread: dough rested for hours submerged in oil, pulled out paper-thin, coiled into a spiral, pressed flat and cooked on a griddle. There are three ways to build layers in dough and this is the third — a croissant folds butter in, an apple strudel stretches and wraps once, and roti canai coils a stretched sheet into a spiral. Then, once cooked, it is clapped between the hands to break those layers apart on purpose.

Ingredients

8servings

Makes 8
Dough
plain flour · replacing 30% with bread flour makes it stretch better500 g
water · lukewarm250 ml
condensed milk · for sweetness and colour, and standard in Malaysian mamak shops. 3 tbsp milk plus 1 tbsp sugar works3 tbsp
egg1
salt1.5 tsp
ghee or melted butter · into the dough2 tbsp
For resting and cooking
neutral oil · enough to submerge the dough balls; strain and reuse what is left200 ml
ghee · for the griddle; half butter and half oil otherwise4 tbsp
To serve
dal or chicken curry · roti is bread for dipping, so something to dip in is not optional4 ladles

Steps

Mix the flour and salt, stir the condensed milk and egg into the water and pour it in, add the ghee, and knead 10 minutes. It is sticky at first and turns into a smooth dough that leaves your hands. The gluten built here is what lets it pull thin later.
⏲ 10 min
Cover and rest 30 minutes, then divide into 8 and roll each into a smooth ball.
⏲ 30 min
Put the balls in a deep container and pour in oil until they are submerged; cover. Leave at room temperature at least 4 hours, overnight is better. This is the condition of the bread: resting in oil rather than under flour is what relaxes the gluten completely and makes it pull to paper thinness. Rested under flour, the surface dries and it tears.
Oil the worktop thinly. Use no flour. Put one ball down, press it out with your palm, then take the edges and push outward until it is thin enough to see through. Experienced cooks throw it and let centrifugal force do the work, but pressing and pushing gets you the same sheet. A few small holes do not matter.
Brush the sheet with ghee, fold both sides in to make a long strip, then roll the strip up from one end into a snail and tuck the end underneath. The layers are made at this step. Shape the rest the same way and rest them 30 minutes.
⏲ 30 min
Press each snail flat with your palm to about 18cm across. Do not use a rolling pin — pressed, the layers survive; rolled, they weld together.
Heat a pan or griddle over medium-high, add ghee, and cook 2 minutes a side, until browned in patches and puffed slightly in the middle.
⏲ 2 min
While it is hot, take the edges in both hands and clap them toward the centre two or three times to break the layers apart. In Malaysia the action is called kepuk. Serve immediately with the curry.

Tips & Variations

Variations

Roti telur: an egg cracked onto the stretched sheet and spread before folding. The commonest order in a mamak shop and considerably more filling.
Roti tisu: the same dough pulled to over 60cm across, sugared and stood up as a cone. Thin as tissue, hence the name.
Roti bawang / sardin / pisang: with onion, tinned sardine or banana. Same dough, different filling.
Roti prata: what Singapore calls it. Effectively the same bread under another name, with different curries beside it. Kerala's parotta is the ancestor of the whole family.
Without condensed milk: traditionally it can be just ghee and water. The condensed milk is the mamak-shop way, adding colour and sweetness.
Making ahead: freeze the coiled snails individually for up to a month. Thaw in the fridge, then press and cook (freezing and thawing).
Leftover roti: chopped up and stir-fried it becomes Sri Lanka's kottu roti, which is the most direct continuation of this dish on the site.
The three ways to make layers: croissant and pain au chocolat fold butter in, apfelstrudel stretches and wraps once, and roti canai coils a stretched sheet.
To serve: dal or chicken curry, and sambal. Malaysia is already represented by nasi lemak and laksa; for Indian breads there is naan, and from the south dosa.

Tips

Resting the dough submerged in oil is the whole bread. Covered with film alone the surface dries and it tears as you pull. Hours under oil relax the gluten completely, and that is what lets it go paper-thin by hand. Four hours minimum; overnight is reliable (dough and gluten).
Use no flour. What goes on the worktop is oil, not flour. Flour dries the sheet and welds the layers. It is the exact opposite of apfelstrudel, which works on flour and a cloth — and both have their reasons (cooking oils).
No coil, no layers. Fold the stretched sheet and griddle it and you have a thin bread. Folding it into a strip and rolling that into a spiral is what traps oil between the turns so it separates in the pan.
No rolling pin. Press the snail out with your palm. A pin presses the layers into each other and you end up with a flatbread.
You do not need to throw it. The mamak-shop spin is fast and impressive, but on an oiled worktop, taking the edges and pushing outward gets the same thickness. A few holes disappear once it is coiled.
Get the pan properly hot. Too cool and the dough sets before the layers can open, and it goes hard. Water should skitter across it (heat control).
Use ghee. Butter burns and plain oil brings no flavour. Without ghee, half butter and half oil raises the smoke point (dairy and heat).
Clap it when it comes off the heat. Without that last move it looks like a pancake. Take the edges in both hands while it is hot and push them together a few times, and the layers break open.
Eat it straight away. Roti canai turns leathery as it cools. Rather than cooking all eight, cook them one at a time as people eat (serving temperature).
Never serve it without curry. This is not a finished dish on its own; it exists to be dipped. Dal is the safe choice, and plain sugar is a common alternative.
Strain and reuse the oil. Very little of the 200ml is actually absorbed. Sieve it and use it for the next batch.