Savoury Crackers/Thins – Salty, Masala crisps/biscuits (eggless)

These salty, savoury thins are crisp, flaky and delicately spiced with lovely fresh ginger and coriander. These thins are super easy to make and they taste just as good as store bought crackers. I would go even further to say they’re better than store bought ones because they’re so fresh. There’s nothing to beat the wonderful gingery aroma that wafts all over the kitchen when these thins bake in the oven. These make excellent non-messy snacks that you can take on car trips or pack for school snack boxes. You can easily transform these into pretty party starters for a kids party – top with cheese and chopped tomatoes, or sour cream and chopped tomatoes, or mayonnaise and corn or a pani puri type potato filling topped with sev. The options are endless and you’ll have the satisfaction of making these impressive starters from scratch.

This is one of the first recipes we did at Artisans Baking class in Anna Nagar, Chennai. Lisa Isaac of ArtisansBaking conducts really nice, value-for-money baking classes. This is her recipe and one my favourite biscuit recipes. The secret to crispy, flaky biscuits is the crumbing technique we use in this recipe. Crumbing is rubbing together cold butter and flour using your finger tips until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. I love the addition of ginger, green chilli and coriander to the biscuits. We use yogurt at the end to bring the mixture together. I think the yogurt makes these thins even more tender and flaky. I am sending this recipe to Srivalli’s Blogging Marathon for the theme “Cooking with curds”.  

Prep time: 15 mins
Cooking time: 30 mins
Makes – 25-30 biscuits

Ingredients

All purpose flour/Maida – 100 gm (about ¾ cup)
Salt – ½ tsp
Sugar – ½ tsp
Baking powder – ½ tsp
Cold Butter – 4 tbsp + 1 tsp for greasing
Yogurt/Curd – 2-1/2 – 3 tbsp
Ginger – 1 -1/2 inch piece peeled and minced
Green chilli – 1 minced
Coriander – leaves picked from 4-5 stems, chopped fine

Method

1.      Preheat oven to 180 C. Grease a baking tray.

2.      Sift flour and baking powder twice. Set aside.

3.      In a bowl, combine butter, sugar and salt. Add the flour in one go and rub the butter and flour between your finger-tips until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. This technique is called crumbing and this helps produce crispy, flaky biscuits.

4.      Tip in the finely chopped ginger green chilli and coriander and mix. Add yogurt/curd 1 tablespoon at a time and try to bring the mixture together into a soft, firm ball of dough without too much pressure. Don’t knead the dough. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate if you’re going to bake them later.

5.      If you’re baking them right away, divide the dough into 2 balls. Set aside 1 and roll out the other ball of dough on a lightly floured surface into a quite thin circle or square about a quarter of an inch or even thinner if you desire.

6.      Use a pizza cutter or sharp knife to cut into squares. Use a fork to prick the biscuits. This is called docking. It helps the steam escape and prevents the biscuits from puffing up. I forgot to do this.

7.      Use a metal spatula to transfer the biscuits to the greased baking tray. Bake for 20-30 minutes or till the top turns light golden in colour.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#30