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    Home » Recipes » Appetizers/Snacks

    Published: Dec 29, 2013 · Modified: Oct 17, 2020 by Usha Rao

    Baked Mathari ~ Baked Indian Crackers

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    Baked mathari is a guilt free version of traditional Indian deep fried Indian crackers.

    Baked mathari are Indian crackers or savory biscuits.  Mathari is usually deep fried and these are baked and guilt free snack.

    What is Mathari?

    Mathari is a popular North Indian snack. It is usually deep fried and today's recipe is baked version from a cookbook. Classic Indian Cooking by Juli Sahni has both deep fried and a baked recipes.

    The baked mathari recipe is flavored with Kasoori Methi (dried Fenugreek Leaves) and the deep fried one unflavored. I was out of kasoori methi hence used carom seeds (ajwain or vooma). The other substitution I made is olive oil for vegetable shortening.

    These are a good, guilt free farsan for Diwali and year round munching.

    Baked mathari are Indian crackers or savory biscuits.  Mathari is usually deep fried and these are baked and guilt free snack.

    Baked Mathari Recipe

    📖 Recipe

    Baked mathari are Indian crackers or savory biscuits. Mathari is usually deep fried and these are baked and guilt free snack.

    Baked Mathari

    Baked mathari is a guilt free version popular deep fried Indian crackers. 
    No ratings yet
    Print Pin Rate
    Course: Snack
    Cuisine: Indian, North Indian
    Prep Time: 40 minutes minutes
    Cook Time: 30 minutes minutes
    Total Time: 1 hour hour 10 minutes minutes
    Servings: 66 pieces
    Calories:

    Ingredients

    • 2 ½ cups All Purpose Flour loosely packed & leveled
    • 2 teaspoon Kosher Salt (I used 1 teaspoon regular salt)
    • ¾ teaspoon Carom Seeds ~ Ajwain ~ Vooma
    • 4 tablespoon Unsalted Butter chilled and cut into small pieces
    • 4 tablespoon Vegetable Shortening I used 3 tablespoon Olive Oil
    • ½ cup Cold Water
    • ¼ - ⅓ cup Flour for dusting

    Required Gadgets

    • 2 Large Baking Sheets
    • Cookie cutter ~ Biscuit Cutter ~ Small bowl (I used the steel cup in the pictures above)
    • Rolling Pin
    • Fork to prick the crackers
    • measuring cups & spoons, and a steel cup

    Instructions

    • Crush caroms seeds in palms or in fingers and take it in a big bowl along with flour, salt and mix well.
    • Add butter, shortening and mix well with fingertips until butter blends into the flour. If using oil instead of shortening, add it at this point and mix until it is blended into the flour.
    • Add water and bring the flour together. Transfer the dough to a working surface; countertop or a cutting/working board and knead well for a minute to make the dough soft. Do not over knead.
    • Pre-heat the oven to 375 F. Line the baking sheets with aluminum foil, for easy cleaning.
    • Divide the dough to 4 equal parts. Take one part onto the working surface, dust some flour and roll it out into a 9 – 10” circle. While rolling out one part of the dough, keep the others covered with a saran wrap or a plate, until ready to use.
    • Using a fork or a skewer, prick the rolled dough to avoid puffing  when baking. 
    • Using a cookie cutter or a biscuit cutter, cut out the big circle into small crackers. I used a small steel cup, 2 – 2 ½” in diameter. Keep aside the scrapes.
    • Transfer crackers to a baking tray. Repeat the above two steps with the rest of the dough parts. Lastly, gather all the scraps, roll it out and cut into crackers.
    • Bake crackers on a middle rack for 10 minutes or until light spots  form on the bottom of the cracker. Turn around and bake for another 5 minutes until light brown. I baked in two batches.  While the first batch was baking, I rolled out rest of the dough.
    • Transfer the baked crackers to a cooling rack and cool them. Once cooled, transfer to an airtight container.

    Notes

    • Substitute - carom seeds with kasoori methi / dry fenugreek leaves for methi mathari. Use ¼ cup kassori methi.
    • Salt - Recipe says 2 tsp. of kosher salt but I used only 1 tsp. regular salt. I usually use iodized salt but today it was non-iodized salt.
    • Vegetable Shortening - I used olive oil instead. Vegetable oil can also be used.
    • Oven Temperatures - temperatures vary from oven to oven.

    Nutrition

    Serving: 0g | Carbohydrates: 0g | Protein: 0g | Fat: 0g | Saturated Fat: 0g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0g | Trans Fat: 0g | Cholesterol: 0mg | Sodium: 0mg | Potassium: 0mg | Fiber: 0g | Sugar: 0g | Vitamin A: 0IU | Vitamin C: 0mg | Calcium: 0mg | Iron: 0mg
    Tried this recipe?Share a photo! Mention @usha_myspicykitchen or tag #Usha_MySpicyKitchen!

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    Baked mathari are Indian crackers or savory biscuits.  Mathari is usually deep fried and these are baked and guilt free snack.

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    1. Kalyani says

      July 16, 2014 at 5:22 am

      rather late on commenting, but here it goes : Stunning pics, and thank u for linking it to the event (which was of course 7 months ago :-))

      am planning to make this, but to make about a dozen, how much flour wud I need ? should i just 1/4 the recipe ??

      Reply
      • MySpicyKitchen says

        July 16, 2014 at 5:10 pm

        Kalyani, yes 1/4 recipe should work. You will get more than one dozen crackers but it might be easier to scale down the recipe this way.

        Reply
    2. notyet100 says

      January 06, 2014 at 10:23 am

      Wish ya great yrvahead,..this one looks perfect ,,,

      Reply
    3. Janani says

      January 03, 2014 at 4:34 pm

      Awesome click and lovely recipe so cutely baked crackers dear.

      Reply
    4. Pavani says

      January 01, 2014 at 5:00 pm

      Your matharis turned out crispy and delicious. I wish this winter goes away real fast -- I can't take this cold and snow anymore 🙁

      Reply
    5. Srivalli says

      January 01, 2014 at 6:12 am

      Such pretty ones usha..your pictures are always so good..so no worries!

      Reply
      • MySpicyKitchen says

        January 01, 2014 at 10:20 am

        Thanks Valli!

        Reply
    6. Suja ilangovan says

      December 30, 2013 at 11:44 pm

      Crisp & guilt free.Perfect tea time snack 🙂

      Reply
    7. Mireille says

      December 30, 2013 at 6:11 pm

      these spiced crackers look so flavorful

      Reply
    8. Nalini says

      December 30, 2013 at 2:35 pm

      Delicious and guilt free snack...

      Reply
    9. Poornima says

      December 30, 2013 at 5:08 am

      yummmm... guiltfree snack... tempted to have them with evening tea...

      Reply

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    Hi, I am Usha! Welcome to my space. I am the content creator and photographer here. I love cooking and all the recipes on the site are tried and tested in my kitchen.

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