Bakarkhani Bread
- Total Time: 1 hour 25 mins
Description
This puff pastry-like flatbread gets it’s name from a legendary tragic love story between a general named Aga Bakar and dancer named Khani Begum.
Ingredients
- 2 cups flour, plus more for spreading on the dough during the rolling process
- 1/4 cup mawa
- 1/4 cup ghee/clarified butter, plus more for spreading on the dough during the rolling process
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 2/3 cups + 3 tablespoon water
- Sesame seeds, to sprinkle
For mawa:
- 1 tablespoon ghee
- 1/2 cup powdered milk
Instructions
Steps to make mawa(cheese dust):
- Heat butter in a nonstick pan over medium low heat.
- Once butter melts, add the dry powdered milk.
- Stir constantly to form a coarse dust and until slightly golden and aromatic. Set aside.
- An alternate way of making mawa : Cook chana in low heat until it changes color to slightly golden. Cool completely and grind in a food processor to a coarse dust.
Steps to prepare bakarkhani:
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Make dough with flour, mawa, salt, sugar and ghee. Add the water little by little, about a tablespoonful at a time to make a stretchy dough.
- Knead well and cover with a wet cloth or wet paper towel for at least 30 minutes.
- Apply some ghee over the dough and keep aside for another ten to fifteen minutes.
- Apply ghee on a long rolling board and a rolling pin.
- Divide the dough into two portions.
- Roll the dough as thin as possible in the long board without adding any flour.
- Take some ghee on our fingers and spread over the rolled dough.
- Sprinkle some flour over the oil so spreading the flour dries out the oil.
- Apply ghee, and then spread flour evenly one more time.
- Fold the dough into half and apply the ghee and flour spreading process twice as step 8 to 10.
- Fold the dough for the second time and repeat the ghee and flour spreading process twice.
- Gently roll the dough. Take small balls from the roll and roll in into small breads.
- Repeat steps 7 to 13 with the second dough.
- Make three cuts with a knife for each piece.
- Sprinkle sesame seeds on each bread piece.
- Bake 22-25 minutes or until it light brown.
- Prep Time: 1 hour
- Cook Time: 25 mins
- Category: Baking
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I substitute ghee with regular butter or oil?
You can use unsalted butter as a direct substitute for ghee at a 1:1 ratio. Neutral oil like vegetable or canola oil also works, though ghee’s nutty, clarified quality is part of what gives bakarkhani its characteristic flaky layers. Avoid olive oil, which has too strong a flavor for this bread.
How long does bakarkhani bread stay fresh?
Bakarkhani is best eaten the day it is baked, when the layers are at their crispest. Stored in an airtight container at room temperature it will keep for 2 days; after that the texture softens. Reheat in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 5 minutes to restore some crispness. 
Why do I need to apply ghee and flour multiple times during rolling?
The repeated ghee-and-flour folds are what create bakarkhani’s signature puff-pastry-like layers. Each fold traps fat between sheets of dough; when the bread bakes, that fat steams and separates the layers. Skipping folds results in a denser, less flaky bread. Three complete fold cycles are the minimum for good layering.
Bakorkhani (Bengali: ????????, romanized: Bakorkhani) is a thick, spiced flatbread that originated in modern-day Bangladesh during the Mughal period with roots in Old Dhaka. It is a very common breakfast snack in Old Dhaka, where it is also most popular in. Outside of Dhaka, Bakorkhani is prepared on certain Muslim religious festivals.