Baked Mathri (Savory Cookies with Indian Spices)

This holiday season I made 3 different types of cookies (recipes for these are coming up soon) and this fruit cake to give as edible gifts. I also made eggless no-bake mango cheesecake as dessert for Christmas. So along with all these sugar laden goodies, I wanted to make something savory to tame our tastebuds and also as a treat to my BIL who doesn't like sugary treats.

As I was looking for recipes for baked savory cookies, I found this baked mathri recipe on Ambika's blog. These were very easy to put together. Only thing I should have done was to flatten them a little bit so they would have turned out more like Ambika's cookies. Also I used black pepper and cumin seeds to spice the cookies. They tasted great but they were a little soft rather than crispy and crunchy. So if you want crispy cookies, then make sure to flatten them before baking.

 Ingredients:

All purpose flour - 2cups

Baking powder - 1tbsp

Black Pepper - 1tsp (adjust as per taste)

Cumin seeds - 2tsp

Salt - 1tsp

Milk - 6tbsp

Oil - ½cup

Method:

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or lightly grease them.
• Combine flour, baking powder, black pepper, cumin seeds and salt. Mix well.
• Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture and add oil. Mix until the mixture is crumbly.
• Now add milk 1tbsp at a time and mix until the mixture starts to come together. When you squeeze the flour mixture in your hand it should hold its shape.
• Make lemon size balls and flatten the cookies. Place them on the prepared baking sheet about 1" apart.
• Bake for 10~15 minutes or until the cookies are lightly browned around the edges.
• Cool on wire rack. Once cooled store them in airtight container.