chapatis question

[JJeannette]

I was looking at the recipe for chapatis and noticed that it said to let the dough rise for an hour. Now my question is--how is it going to rise when there is nothing in there to make it rise? Is it more of a "fermentation" process or is something missing in the recipe?

[livinart]

Hi,
I am not sure which recipie you are refering to, but I learned to make chapatis when I lived in Kenya and your intuition seems right to me...there is no yeast involved and we never needed to let it "rise" or sit for any amount of time, just mix the dough, flatten and cook...
Hope that helped!
Lisa

[sneezles]

Maybe it meant to say let the dough rest. After working the dough sometimes it needs to "rest" so that it is more pliable when shaping.