Mathri or mathi or short crust cookies are a must make snack in all households for the festive season. Made with maida or wheat flour, the dough is kneaded firm and rolled out into small discs and then deep fried. They make for a perfect tea-time snack.
With holi round the corner, this must be made by kilos in most Indian households. Mine is no different.
Mathri is similar to flaky biscuits and is a delight to eat with tea or coffee or simply with some home-made pickle. The thought only gives me goose bumps & crave some more.
You can give different shapes to the dough – either using a cookie cutter or shape them freehand into triangles.
You can substitute part of maida with maida to reduce some refined calories from it.
Here’s to Holi & all Indian festivals.
Mathri
Ingredients
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 tbsp semolina
- 1/2 tsp carom seeds
- 2 tbsp ghee clarified butter
- to taste salt
- oil for frying
Instructions
- In a large bowl, mix flour, semolina, salt & carom seeds.
- Add ghee & mix gently. Now hold the flour in your fist, if it forms a loose clump, then the amount of ghee is fine, if it doesn't then add a bit more ghee.
- Using water knead the dough. The dough should be slightly hard to touch. Wrap in a wet muslin cloth & keep it aside for 1/2 hour.
- Form small balls with the dough. Roll these balls using a rolling pin. Use a knife or fork to make small holes/ slits in the rolled pastry.
- Heat oil in a big wok, fry these pastry till golden brown. The oil should be not be very hot. If you fry mathris in very hot oil, they will cook from outside and not inside. Deep fry mathris till golden brown on slow flame.
- Enjoy warm with tea or coffee or pickle. It will store well in an air-tight container at room temperature for 6-7 days.
Notes

Mathri | Indian Flaky Biscuits
I have no idea how the Carom Seeds taste like (I must confess, I had to google to even find out what they are :), but I like the recipe and the photo. I also learned about Ghee, never heard of it before :)