Bread muruku is a spicy, crunchy deep fried snack from South India.
Diwali is next week and it is a tradition to prepare snacks and sweets that have a shelf life and distributed among friends and family. The theme for this week is Diwali snacks and sweets. I have two savory snacks and a sweet for the theme. First recipe is bread muruku or janthikalu.
Ingredients for Muruku
The star ingredient in muruku or chakli is rice flour with or without any other additional flour. Chakli is usually round in shape unlike a muruku though the dough is the same. In bread muruku, bread is the secondary ingredient and it blends well with rice flour. Apart from bread, the rest of the ingredients are similar to any other muruku. Little bit of carom seeds, cumin seeds, chili powder, salt and some sesame seeds. This saggu biyyam or sago muruku is with different flours in addition to rice flour.
Muruku press is used to prepare different shapes of muruku. A soft muruku dough is pressed through a muruku press directly into hot oil to deep fry. These are crunchy, spicy and great for snacking with tea or after school. Also a great snack for lunch boxes.
Bread Muruku Recipe
📖 Recipe
Bread Muruku
Equipment
- Muruku Press
Ingredients
- 2 cup Rice Flour
- 2 cup fresh Bread Crumbs or crumbs from 6 slices of bread, edges trimmed
- 2 teaspoon Chili Powder adjust to taste
- ¾ teaspoon Salt adjust to taste
- ½ teaspoon Carom Seeds ~ Ajwain crushed between palms
- 1 teaspoon Cumin Seeds
- 1 tablespoon melted Unsalted Butter or Ghee, I used ghee
- ¼ cup or 4 tablespoon Sesame Seeds washed and drained
- 1 cup Water more as needed. You will need a little over a cup of water
- Oil for deep frying
Instructions
- Take rice flour in a big bowl.
- Trim the edges of the bread, make crumbs in a food processor and add to rice flour.
- Add chili powder, salt, carom seeds, cumin and mix well.
- Add sesame seeds and mix well.
- Pour melted butter/ghee and lightly rub into the flour.
- Taste the flour mixture and adjust salt and chili powder to taste. Mixture should be bit on the salty and spicy side. When deep frying oil will absorb little bit of salt and chili from the muruku.
- Add some water and make a dough. You will need a little over 1 cup of water. Dough should be soft and not too stiff. Muruku will break when pressing if the dough is stiff.
- Let the dough rest for a few minutes. This is optional though.
- Divide dough into 6 parts.
- Heat oil in a pan for deep frying.
- Grease muruku press and use a star plate.
- Fill the muruku press with one part of the dough.
- Press it into hot oil in circular motion.
- Fry muruku on medium - medium high flame until fried. Flip and let fry until golden brown.
- Remove from oil, drain on paper towel.
- Repeat the above with rest of the dough.
- When murukulu (plural) are completely cool, store in an airtight container. These stay good for at least 2 weeks in the pantry.
Notes
- Bread - I made crumbs in a food processor, pulsed for few seconds. Alternative is to soak bread in water, squeeze water and add it to rice flour. Mix well to blend both the ingredients and follow rest of the recipe.
- Water - Dough should be soft else muruku will break when pressing, meaning you will get small pieces of muruku instead of long strand.
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Lathiya says
This is so interesting. Adding bread to murukku is a genius idea. the murukku looks so crispy and delicious.
MySpicyKitchen says
Thanks Lathiya.
Jagruti's Cooking Odyssey says
Adding bread in chakli is something new to me, but I guess we Gujju add wheat flour to it, so bread is acceptable 🙂
MySpicyKitchen says
Haha, I like your reasoning! 🙂
Suma Gandlur says
The recipe sounds pretty unique with the addition of breadcrumbs to janthikalu. They have come out perfect, looking crispy and crunchy. Bookmarked.
Mayuri Patel says
I have heard of murukku or chakri with different flours from rice flour to ragi flour but with bread crumbs. Now that is definitely interesting. Booking your Bread muruku Usha and will try it out as hubby loves this crunchy snack.
amrita says
Love the twist in a traditional snack and this is a good way to use all the leftover breads... beautiful capture
Jolly says
Wow! muruku with bread crumbs sounds so crunchy and delicious. Never heard about it. That’s an very innovative idea.
Jayashree T.Rao says
Adding bread to muruku is new to me, they look so crispy and yumm. Good one, something unique one.
MySpicyKitchen says
Thank you Jayashree
Uma Srinivas says
Muruku looks great with texture and color. I never added bread crumbs to the murukku. You gave us a unique recipe to make murukku for the next time.
MySpicyKitchen says
Thanks Uma. Please do try it.
Sandhya Ramakrishnan says
I have never thought of using bread in murukku! This is so interesting Usha and the texture of the murukku looks great! I will try this next time I make murukku.
MySpicyKitchen says
Thanks Sandhya!
Harini Rupanagudi says
That is very innovative, Usha. Never heard of adding bread to murukku flour. Shall try it next time.
Rafeeda - The Big Sweet Tooth says
Murukku with bread crumbs in it sounds like a judicial way of using ingredients... looks so crunchy and tempting...
Amara says
Wow Usha, these murukus look crunchy and delicious. Never heard of adding bread crumbs to muruku. That's an innovative idea. Wish I can taste them now.
MySpicyKitchen says
My mom use to make a lot when growing up, Amara