Sheermalشیرمال
⏱ Prep 20m🍳 Cook 10m🍽 Serves 6🌿 Vegetarian
Video: Sanjeev Kapoor Khazana (YouTube)
Sheermal is the bread of Nawabs — a lightly sweet, saffron-golden flatbread from the royal kitchens of Lucknow and Hyderabad. The name means milk-bread: sheer is Persian for milk, and the dough is enriched with warm milk, ghee, and the faint perfume of kewra. Traditionally baked on the walls of a clay tandoor, it pairs beautifully with rich kebabs and kormas.
📍 Make it in Plano
This recipe is the same everywhere — but where you buy the ingredients and eat the dish is local to you.
Finding Desi spots near Plano…
Ingredients
- ▪Maida (all-purpose flour)2 cups
- ▪Kesar (saffron)a generous pinch
- ▪Warm milk¾ cup (plus 3 tbsp for saffron)
- ▪Sugar1½ tbsp
- ▪Active dry yeast1 tsp
- ▪Ghee3 tbsp (plus extra for brushing)
- ▪Salt½ tsp
- ▪Elaichi powder (green cardamom)¼ tsp
- ▪Kewra water (screwpine essence)1 tsp
🌍 Cooking abroad? Substitutions
- Kewra water (screwpine essence) is available at South Asian grocery stores under the Rooh Afza or Zafrani brand. In a pinch, substitute with 2–3 drops of rose water — the floral note differs but works.
- If you lack a hot oven, a preheated heavy cast-iron skillet with a lid on high heat cooks sheermal in 3–4 minutes per side; press gently with a folded cloth after flipping to encourage even browning.
- Maida (fine all-purpose flour) is key to sheermal's soft crumb. Avoid whole-wheat flour substitutions — they make it dense rather than pillowy.
Method
- 1Bloom the saffron: warm 3 tbsp milk until just hot (not boiling), add the kesar, and let it steep for 15 minutes. The milk should turn a deep gold. Set aside.
- 2Proof the yeast: dissolve sugar in the remaining ¾ cup warm milk, sprinkle the yeast on top, and leave for 10 minutes until frothy. If it does not froth, your yeast is stale — start over.
- 3In a wide bowl, combine maida, salt, and elaichi powder. Add the ghee and rub it into the flour between your fingers until the texture resembles fine breadcrumbs — this laminating step is what makes sheermal tender.
- 4Add the proofed yeast liquid, the saffron milk, and kewra water. Bring together into a soft dough, then knead for 8–10 minutes until smooth and elastic. The dough should be noticeably softer than chapati dough.
- 5Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place for 1 to 1½ hours until doubled.
- 6Preheat your oven to 230°C / 450°F (or heat a cast-iron pan until very hot). Divide the dough into 6 balls. Roll each into a rough oval or round about ¼ inch thick — sheermal is thicker than naan. Prick all over with a fork so it bakes evenly.
- 7Brush liberally with the leftover saffron milk. Bake for 8–10 minutes until pale gold, puffed at the edges, and just set. Do not overbake — it should stay soft, not crisp.
- 8Remove from the oven and brush immediately and generously with ghee. Serve warm the same day alongside seekh kebabs, nihari, or a rich mutton korma.
A Desi.Net original recipe · part of our Indian Cuisine library. Confirm details and adjust to taste.