Mathri Recipe (Mathiya)

Mathri is a popular North Indian cracker like fried snack made with flour and a hint of spices and herbs. Flaky, crispy, delicious and addictive – that is how your guests will describe it. Mathri is generally served with tea or pickles. You can have it as an appetizer snack with yogurt, sauce, chutneys or dips. This stores well for up to a month making them great for snacking on the go.

This crunchy snack with lovely flavors makes a good finger food to serve at parties.

About Mathri

Mathri is a Rajasthani snack that is popular across North India and is prepared especially for festivals like Diwali, Holi, Karva chauth and Teej. It is also known as mathiya or mathari.

While it is traditionally made with refined flour (maida) and semolina, make it with wheat flour (like my recipe) or semolina flour. Various spices like cumin, carom seeds, kaloni, sesame seeds and fenugreek leaves are most commonly used to spice up and flavor the snack.

A well-done mathri is crisp, flaky, neither too hard nor soft but is perfect with the right crunch similar to the samosa crust. The method to make the dough is similar to the samosa dough and even the technique of frying matri is similar to frying samosa.

My boys love these mathri for the amazing flavors and the texture. To make these healthier I use whole wheat flour and sometimes air fry too. To reduce the nutty aroma of whole wheat I also add a bit of gram flour (besan) but you are free to skip that.

My recipe is simple and uses minimal ingredients. Make a big batch of this crispy snack when you’ve time as it stores well for weeks. If you want a healthy version, make it in the air fryer or bake it in the oven with my easy instructions below.

The main trick is ensuring your mathri is neither hard nor soft. Follow my detailed steps to get it right every time.

Photo Guide

How to Make Mathri (Stepwise photos)

Prepare the ingredients

1. Add these ingredients to a large mixing bowl:
2 cups of whole wheat flour,
¼ cup of besan (gram flour),
6 tablespoons semolina (I used whole wheat fine rava)
1 to 1¼ teaspoon salt

2. Next add the below mentioned ingredients to the flours in the bowl:

• Carom seeds/ajwain – 1 teaspoon
• Crushed kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves) – 1 tablespoon
• Kalonji (onion seeds, optional) – 1 teaspoon
• Black pepper crushed – 1 teaspoon (adjust to taste)

3. Mix well to combine. Now add 6 tablespoons (90 ml) of hot ghee or oil to the dry ingredients. You may heat the oil or ghee in a kadai which you will use for frying the mathri later.

Make the dough

4. Avoid using your fingers at this stage and mix the oil into the flour first, since it is hot. Later rub well using both your hands. This helps the oil to mix in with the flour.

5. Take a handful of flour in your palm and press down.

6. Flour should hold shape, meaning it has the right amount of oil required for the crust.

7. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour ½ cup of warm water. Mix to form a tight dough.

8. This is how the mixture looks. Sprinkle 2 to 4 tablespoons of water, only as required and make a dough. The dough has to be stiff and slightly hard, but not dry and crumbly.

9. You don’t want a soft and smooth dough here.

10. If you divide the dough into 2, the inside dough should be crumbly but not dry. Cover and rest it for 10 mins.

11. Divide dough into equal portions. Smoothen dough pieces and roll in small balls (size of a lemon) on your palms. Don’t worry about cracks in the dough as this is normal.

Flatten balls with your thumb. Start pressing from the center to the sides, to make discs. These shouldn’t be thick or thin. A good mathri will have cracks on the edges. Place the prepared mathri on a tray or plate.

Heat 1½ to 2 cups of oil on medium-low in a large, thick bottomed pan or kadhi. The oil should be medium hot and not sizzling. To test, drop a miniscule piece dough in to the hot oil. If it sinsk and rises up slowly with few baubles, the oil is heated right enough (moderately hot).

If the oil is very hot, the insides of the mathri will remain uncooked and won’t be crunchy. Gently slide each mathri into the oil, as many as your kadai can handle.

Reduce the flame to low and let the mathri fry slowly.

These take time to cook. Don’t be tempted to cook faster by increasing the heat. Fry until they turn golden brown and crispy. Remove to a colander and fry the remaining batches. Cool the mathri completely before you store in an airtight container.

You can fry these in an airfryer at 190C for 10-15 minutes. Flip the mathri halfway through cooking. Check after 8 minutes as they start burning quickly.

Pro Tips

• Don’t skimp on the amount of oil used to mix the dough if you wan the perfect mathri dough.
• Make a tight and stiff dough, It should not be dry or soft.
• Don’t roll the dough too thin or too thick. This will affect the way the mathri cooks. It may be undercooked or burn easily.
• Fry the mathri on low heat to ensure it remains crispy and well-cooked inside.

Related Recipes

Recipe Card