When i first made my list of breads for this mega marathon, I took great pains to avoid flatbreads because, in my head, I always liken bread to the rise in the oven mostly overwhelming the loaf pan. But this recipe looked delicious and also, I did not have too many options from T. So I decided to go ahead with it. It was one of the first breads I made for this marathon and it paired beautifully with the dal makhni.

Taftan, taftoon or taftun is a leavened flour bread from Persian, Pakistani and Uttar Pradesh cuisines, baked in a clay oven. This bread is made with milk, yoghurt, and eggs. It is often flavoured with saffron and a small amount of cardamom powder, and may be decorated with seeds such as poppy seeds.

Country – Iran

Makes 8-9 taftans

Recipe adapted from here

WHAT WE NEED

All purpose flour           1 3/4 cups

Sugar                                1 tbsp

Instant yeast                   1 tbsp

Milk                                  1 cup

Curd / Yogurt                   2 tbsp

Ghee                                  3 tbsp

Oil                                      1 tbsp

Caraway / carom seeds    To sprinkle

WHAT TO DO

• Sift the flour, add salt, sugar, yeast and yogurt and mix well
• Add 2 tbsp of ghee and knead into a dough by slowly adding milk. You may not need the entire milk. Add 3/4 cup first and then add 1 tbsp at a time to get a soft elastic dough 
• Cover and set aside the dough in a greased bowl till doubles in volume, about an hour
• Preheat the oven at 200C
• Brush the oil over the dough and divide it into 8-9 pieces 
• Roll out each dough piece into a circle which is thicker at the edges
• Make indents / grooves on the dough with your fingertips
• Grease a baking tray and place 1-2 rolled out dough on the baking tray 
• Sprinkle the top with caraway seeds / carom seeds 
• Bake for 7-8 minutes and spread some ghee on the taftan and bake again for another 7-8 minutes or till it starts turning golden brown
• Repeat the same procedure till all the taftans are baked
• Enjoy with dal or curry of your choice!

NOTES

1. These taftans can also be cooked on the tava like a regular roti but it takes 6-8 minutes per taftan. 

 This is my post for the Mega Marathon under the letter ‘T’.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 75