While flour is a versatile ingredient, there are many types of flour available that offer unique textures, tastes, and more to different recipes, and one particularly interesting flour is chapati flour.
If this is the first time you’ve heard of chapati flour, you may be curious as to what chapati flour is. I did the research, and here is what I learned!
What Is Chapati Flour?
Chapati flour refers to flour used to make chapatis, which is a type of flatbread, but the real name of the flour is atta flour. Generally, chapati flour is finely milled whole wheat flour but some manufacturers mix other kinds of flour with the whole wheat flour to create more unique flavors.
Do you want to learn what chapati flour tastes like, what chapati flour can be used for, and what you can substitute for chapati flour? Keep reading!
What Is Chapati Flour Made Of?
Usually, chapati flour is made from finely milled whole wheat flour, but some varieties of chapati flour may contain whole wheat flour mixed with other types of flour.
What Does Chapati Flour Taste Like?
Typically, chapati flour does not have much of a taste since chapati flour is a fairly neutral-tasting flour.
What Is Chapati Flour Used For?
Generally, chapati flour is used to create chapati, which is a type of Indian flatbread that may also be called chapatti or chapathi.
However, chapati flour is not solely used for chapatis since the true name of the flour is atta flour.
Normally, chapati flour can be used in almost any recipe that requires whole wheat flour.
Moreover, chapati flour is an excellent choice to make other types of flatbreads since chapati flour gives the ideal texture and flavor for most flatbread recipes.
What Is Medium Chapati Flour?
Medium chapati flour refers to a specific type of chapati flour, which is a mixture of white chapati flour and wholemeal flour.
Typically, medium chapati flour offers a more distinct taste than regular chapati flour.
Is Chapati Flour The Same As Atta Flour?
Technically, chapati flour is the same as atta flour because chapati is the name atta is the real name of the wholewheat flour
What Is Chapati Flour Called In English?
Technically, chapati flour is atta flour, and atta flour is simply called wheat flour in English.
However, most people will specifically call the flour atta flour or chapati flour since they are made from specific types of wheat.
Is Chapati Flour The Same As Plain Flour?
Generally, chapati flour and plain flour are not the same because chapati flour contains wheat germ whereas plain flour does not.
Moreover, using plain flour to create chapatis would give you extremely difficult results compared to chapati flour.
For instance, plain flour will create a rather leathery chapati when chapati should not be leathery at all.
Is Chapati Flour The Same As Rice Flour?
Chapati flour is not the same as rice flour because chapati flour is made from whole wheat while rice flour is made from rice.
A notable difference between rice flour and chapati flour is that chapati flour contains gluten because chapati flour is created from wheat whereas rice flour does not contain gluten.
Additionally, chapati flour usually creates fairly soft results while rice flour makes a stretchy and slightly chewy texture.
However, chapati flour and rice flour are both fairly neutral-tasting types of flour.
Is Chapati Flour High In Gluten?
Chapati flour does contain gluten, and chapati flour is somewhat high in gluten since chapati flour contains around 9% gluten.
Generally, chapati flour contains less gluten than other types of flour, which is why chapati flour is used for flatbreads because chapati flour will not create much rise.
However, chapati flour will likely cause reactions in people who are sensitive or allergic to gluten.
Which Chapati Flour Is The Best In The UK?
Generally, Elephant Atta is regarded as the best chapati flour in the UK because Elephant Atta is the most popular chapati flour in the UK.
However, deciding which chapati flour is the best is subjective depending on who you are asking.
Can I Use Bread Flour Instead Of Chapati Flour?
Generally, it is not advisable to use bread flour in place of chapati flour despite both flours being made from whole wheat because they are made of different types of whole wheat.
For instance, bread flour contains a lot more gluten than chapati flour, which creates denser, more structured, and crumblier results that are not ideal for chapati.
Therefore, your chapati recipe would be more similar to a regular bread loaf instead of a flatbread.
What Can I Use Instead Of Chapati Flour?
If you do not have any chapati flour, you can use ½ cup of unbleached white flour or all-purpose flour and ½ cup of whole wheat flour for every cup of chapati flour you need.
Alternatively, you can use a mixture of white flour and wholemeal flour instead of chapati flour, but you may have a slightly gritty texture in your dish because wholemeal flour is gritty.
Another excellent option to replace chapati flour is to use white whole wheat flour, which has a blonde-like color and is made from hard white wheat.
Take a look at our related articles to discover what coconut flour is, what Carbalose flour is, and what cauliflower flour is.
Conclusion
Chapati flour is another name for atta flour, which is whole wheat flour, and chapati flour is called chapati flour since atta flour is popularly used to create chapati.
Generally, chapati flour has the perfect texture and flavor profile for many unleavened flatbread recipes.