Bread recipes

Bread in Pakistani cooking means flatbread cooked fresh at every meal, not a loaf kept on a shelf. Paratha — a layered, pan-fried wholewheat flatbread — is the everyday version, distinct from plain roti in that fat is folded into the dough in layers (usually by rolling, brushing with ghee, folding, and re-rolling) to create flakiness when it hits the hot tawa. It's a breakfast staple, often served with a fried egg, yoghurt or leftover curry, and it's forgiving of technique in a way tandoor breads like naan and bakarkhani aren't, since it's cooked entirely on a stovetop pan rather than in a clay oven most home kitchens don't have. Getting the layers right comes down to two things: resting the dough long enough for the gluten to relax, and keeping the tawa hot enough that the fat crisps the layers instead of soaking into them. Regional variations exist — Gilgit-Baltistan's breads lean on buckwheat rather than wheat, reflecting what actually grows at altitude — but the folding technique behind paratha is the throughline across most everyday Pakistani flatbreads.