Savory Onion Crackers ~ Baked Nippattu

Deepavali or Diwali is next week and I normally do not prepare any savouries and sweets for the festival, unlike the tradition back home. This year however, seeing the preparations of fellow bloggers, I was motivated to prepare some at home. Sunday morning, I baked Nippattu from Red Chillies and she says baked nippattu are very popular in Bangalore bakeries. I baked these couple of times this past year and I got mixed results both times. First time I baked them, the first batch was burned and the other batch came out perfect as I reduced the baking time. I loved the taste, although my first batch was a little burnt. The second time I baked them, I made twice the recipe, I added some chili powder to make it spicy, substituted butter with ICBINB (I can believe it is not butter) and it was an amalgam of three different recipes. The taste was ok but not as good as it tasted the first time. I should have followed one recipe instead. Also, since I made it in large-scale, I was exhaust pressing the nippattu and I made them thick, resulting in soft nippattu. They were not crispy as they were supposed to be. Today I stuck to Red Chilies recipe with one substitution. I replaced baking soda with baking powder and the outcome was perfect nippattu! These nippattu are so addictive that by Monday morning my nippattu box was empty!!!! 🙂

I wanted to make full recipe and once I started putting together all the ingredients, I realized I did not have enough all-purpose flour and ended up making half the recipe. These crackers go to Nupur's Blog Bites 9 - Holiday Buffet.

Source: Red Chillies
Preparation Time: 15 - 20 minutes
Baking Time: 18 - 20 minutes
Yields: 20

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

1 cup All Purpose Flour (Maida)
½ teaspoon Baking Powder
½ teaspoon Salt
1 tsp. Sugar
2 tsp. Sesame seeds
½ medium Onion chopped or ⅓ cup chopped Onion
1 ½ Green Chilies chopped
¼ cup chopped Cilantro
⅙ cup Oil
2 tbsp. Butter melted
⅛ cup warm Water (I used less than ⅛ cup)

Preparation:

Take a mixing bowl or a plate and mix together the dry ingredients; all-purpose flour, salt, sugar, baking powder and sesame seeds.
Add onion, green chilies and cilantro to the mixture and mix well.
Add oil and continue to mix it. Small lumps will form now. Add butter and continue to mix all the ingredients together.
Add water and mix it well to make the dough. I used less than ⅛ cup of water. Knead well for 2-3 minutes. Cover the bowl with a plate and leave it for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 325 F.
Line a baking tray with a baking sheet or an aluminum foil.
Grease a plastic sheet; press a small ball of dough into flat disc using your fingers. Press it as thin as you can. Remove the nippattu from the plastic sheet and place it on the baking sheet. Repeat the process until all the dough is over.

With a fork, pierce the nippattu. This is very crucial and a must for think and crispy crackers/nippattu.

Place the tray in the oven and bake it for 17 minutes or until the crackers turn light brown. Oven temperatures vary from oven to oven, so keep a close eye on it.