Baked Nippattu | Healthy Tea Time Snacks

Its already the third week of Baking BM. Cant believe its 10 days since the baking madness started. 

Wanting to convert deep fried treats into baked delights was top of my list when I started prepping for the baking BM. Although I did bookmark quite a few of them, this particular one caught my fancy as the snack hails from my hometown, and therefore the urge to make it perfectly was very high.  Nandita’s recipe just kept calling out to me, and her post was soaked with nostalgia on Bangalore bakery treats. Nippattu (or thattai as its called in Tamil, but a poor cousin though) is one of those treats where monsoon is just an excuse to indulge.

We do make these fried ones very occasionally but also for Krishna Jayanti. But of late, it had no callers. Till now. When we made these baked version, it just got devoured fast and furious by all including the little one, who has taken a fancy for savoury stuff than sweet. This is similar to the Onion Crackers I made earlier this month, but it was a lot more crunchier and the taste was fully rounded due to the addition of cornflour and milk powder.

If made traditionally, grated coconut and rice flour are used to make a dough (I promise to post that recipe soon) , but this recipe called for APF and a bit of cornflour + milk powder. I substituted half of the APF with Wholewheat, and although the Nippattu got a tad more denser, the crunch came in from the hot oil poured on to the dry dough (something you shouldn’t miss if you need crunchy and tasty Nippattu)

I followed Nandita’s recipe with some minor tweaks (sometimes I wonder why I cant follow a recipe, verbatim) and the results were spectacular. We are sure to make this often to kill those 4 pm pangs (or anytime, actually) and enjoy with a hot cuppa.

Baking Marathon Day 11 : Baked Nippattu (savoury biscuit)

Source : Nandita’s recipe

Recipe type : Teatime Snacks

Course: Snack

Cuisine : Indian (South Indian – Karnataka recipe)

Makes : Two dozen medium  sized Nippattu

Spice level – medium to high (adjust to taste), keeps for upto week without refrigeration

Prep time: 15 mins | Bake time : 20-22 mins (varies from oven to oven)

Ingredients:

• Maida – 1 cup
• Wholewheat flour – 1 cup
• Cumin Seeds - 1 TBSP
• Milk powder / evaporated milk – 2 tsp
• Cornflour- 1 TBSP
• Baking Soda – ¾ tsp
• Melted Butter – 4 TBSP (I used 2 TBSP melted Ghee with 4 tsp Canola Oil)
• Sugar – 1 TBSP
• Salt – to taste
• Oil – for basting  (approx. 3 TBSP)
• Spices : Coriander leaves, curry leaves, roasted sesame, green chillies, asafoetida, chilly powder (adjust to taste)* See Notes
• Onion – 1 medium – finely chopped (optional)
• Water – to knead

Method:

• Sieve the flours twice with soda, cornflour, salt, milk powder to a largish mixing bowl. Add sugar, Cumin Seeds and mix well. Heat oil and butter to a smoking temperature, cool for 2-3 mins and add to the flour. Using a fork (caution – don’t use your hands, your hands could be scalded), mix the flour and rub the oil-butter into the flour till it resembles breadcrumbs. Now add the rest of spices, onions and mix well. Let it stand for 2 mins till onions release the water due to the salt.
• Now, sprinkle very little water and make into a slightly stiff dough. Covered rest of dough for 5 mins * (see notes)
• Preheat oven to 175 Deg C
• Roll into a thickish disc, using a cookie cutter , poke them with a fork, and place the cut out discs onto a lined baking tray  / silicon sheet. With a brush, apply a very thin film of oil .
• Bake for 12-15 mins at 175 deg c. flip them once , baste them again with a brush and bake for 5-7 mins at 165 when you see them golden brown. If its too brown already, they may start burning very fast.
• Cool them on the rack and store in an airtight container.

*Note –

1) If you are making large quantities, draw only a portion of the dry portion, sprinkle little water and make to a wet dough, make discs, put them out to bake, and then proceed to make another batch

2) Spices are adjusted to taste – we don’t want them to overpower the flour mix. You can use only red chilly powder instead of green chillies + red chilly powder.

Lets check out the Baking Treats dished out past 2 weeks on Baking Marathon – Fire up your oven series

Week 1:

Orange Cake with Almond Meal

Veg Au Gratin

Onion Crackers

Coriander pesto Pull apart Rolls

Week 2:

Grilled Kabab Platter

Wholewheat Custard Powder Cookies

Vegan Strawberry Banana Mini Loaf

Oats ButterMilk Crackers

Veg Calzone

Vanilla Sponge Marble Cake

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 51

An InLinkz Link-up