Finally I Learnt To Make Restaurant Style Paper Thin Dosa, With Homemade Batter!

Making paper thin dosa is an art, and I tried many times until I hit upon the right recipe. Make your own crispy restaurant style dosa, and enjoy. Yum!

My family loves dosas; who doesn’t, for that matter? We just love them a lot more, to the extent that we can call ourselves converted south Indians.

After a lot of trials of various combinations of batter, cooking method, a lot many errors I have finally arrived at the correct mode of making crispy, paper thin dosa from homemade batter.

Buy the correct tawa, to get paper thin dosa

At first I tried using pre-greased, hot but regular tawa. The first few dosas were always a real struggle to separate from the tawa though subsequent ones turned out okish to some extent. Non-stick tawa was my next option. The dosa did not stick as much here, but it was still thick, which is why the taste wasn’t as great. The non-stick coating also spoiled easily making it unhealthy for everyday cooking.

Recently, I have started using the marble tawa – ones that have sparkle, and I can’t tell you how pleased I am with the dosas now. They come out paper thin, crispy and with very, very little amount of oil.

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Batter portion

This combination was shared by my very close Kannadiga friend. Try it.

Ingredients for paper thin dosa

1 bowl of split urad dal
2 bowls of par-boiled rice
1 tsp of methi

Yes, you don’t need soda, so it’s 100% chemical free. Though you need to ensure that you use par boiled rice or thick variety of rice which is dark-yellowish/light-brown in colour.

Method for making paper thin dosa

Rinse all the ingredients with water, just once, and let them soak fully in sufficient water for 6 hours. Don’t put the lid on the bowl, so that the mixture does not start fermenting. Cover it with a jaali.

Now grind this mixture into a smooth paste; its consistency should be similar to that of your shampoo. Not very liquid-y.

Add salt to taste and stir well. Cover the bowl fully with the lid and let the batter ferment overnight, approx. 8-10 hours. The batter ferments quicker during summer months than winters. Your batter will be risen upto 2 times its volume once ready.

Making the paper thin dosa

Here are a few tips that will help you get the right thickness for your dosa.

Tip #1: To make paper thin dosa, stir the batter and add a small amount of water so that the batter spreads thinly on the marble tawa. If the batter is thick, it will not spread much, leading to a thick and soft dosa.

Tip #2: Keep the flame low when you start spreading the batter. This way, you will get some time to spread out the batter evenly. On high flame, the batter will start drying up fast, making it difficult to spread it.

Tip #3: Once the batter has been spread, keep it on high flame. Add the desired amount of ghee or refined oil – more oil will obviously give you extra crispiness and taste.

Tip #4: When cooking with less oil, I toss the dosa, so that its well done on both sides.

Tip #5: If you try to separate the dosa from the tawa too soon, it will tend to crumble. So let the dosa cook, then it will come off very easily.

Tip #6: I have also bought a silicone palta, which makes it quite easy to work with the dosa. And it does not spoit the marble tawa.

Your paper thin dosa is ready. Fill it up with cheese or chutney powder if you don’t know how to, or don’t want to take the effort of making the aloo-masala, and serve with coconut chutney. My kids love this paper thin dosa so much that it makes it to their breakfast table almost 4 times a week.

Frankly, I love homemade dosas as they are 100% chemical free, made with less oil; and fermented foods are rich sources of probiotics – good for building immunity.

I hope you found it useful. I would love to read your comments.

Bon Appetit!

Images credit: the author

Header image source: YouTube

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