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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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Baked Mathari

Baked mathari is a guilt free version popular deep fried Indian crackers. 
Course Snack
Cuisine Indian, North Indian
Prep Time 40 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 10 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