One of my primary grouses with Bangalore is the lack of availability of amazing chaats. There are some few and far between but not the variety and taste I am used to from Mumbai. Since this year I haven’t been able to travel to Mumbai for my chaat fix, I have spent sufficient time trying to make them all at home. Despite my best efforts, I haven’t found papdi in any online or offline store. So I simply have to make them. So here goes a simple and quick recipe for yummy papdi.
Why do we need these delicious baked papdi?
If you are not familiar with chaat, then here is a quick ready reckoner. Chaat is something that encompasses all flavours and tastes. The tastiest chaats are those available as street food. They have magic which is hardly ever replicated in fine dine restaurants. The most popular chaat foods are bhel puri, pani puri, sev puri, dahi batata puri, pav bhaji, ragada pattice, etc. Most of them need the papdi and it gives the chaat the crunch it needs.
Papdi is similar to a crisp flat cracker. It is made with all purpose flour or whole wheat flour, some semolina, carrom seeds for taste, oil and salt. Since we are making it at home, it can be any size of our choosing. I like to make smaller ones when I make bhel puri, like in the picture above. If I make sev puri I like the papdi discs to be wider and slightly larger. This makes it easier to load it up with all the other elements of the chaat.
Baked papdi is a quick and easy dish that will take less than an hour. All we need is to mix in all the ingredients and let it rest for around 20 minutes. Then we cut it into discs and bake for around 15 minutes. If you do not want to bake then you can always deep fry it till it is golden brown on both sides. The discs need to be thin enough so that they are crisp when baked or fried.
For more chaat recipes, check out this quick fix Bhel Puri, Pav Bhaji, Jini Dosa and Bhajiya Pav.
Baked Papdi for Chaat
Equipment
- OTG or MIcrowave Oven to bake
Ingredients
- 130 gms All purpose flour / whole wheat flour
- 1 tbsp Rava / Semolina
- 1/2 tsp Ajwain / Carrom seeds
- 2 tbsp Oil
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 75 gms Water
Instructions
- Take the flour, semolina, ajwain, oil and salt in a bowl
- Add water little by little to form a soft firm dough. I used around 75 gms water but you may need more or less depending on the quality of flour
- Once the dough is formed, cover and set aside for 20 minutes
- Preheat the oven to 180 C
- Roll out the dough to a 2-3mm thick circle. Using a round cookie cutter or any small cup cut the dough into as many small discs as possible. Get the balance dough together, roll it out again and shape into discs. Continue the same till the entire dough is shaped into discs.
- Once the dough is cut and shaped into discs transfer them to a baking tray lined with parchment.
- Prick each disc with a fork, twice or thrice
- Bake for 15-20 minutes till the papdi are a nice brown colour on both sides. Flip the papdi at the midway point to ensure even browning on both sides
- Cool for 5-10 minutes before using them for a delicious chaat
Baked papdi is a great option for people like who do not want fried stuff! They would make perfect chat bites, wish I could dig in right now.
I am sucker for chaat! Baked papdi is great when we want to enjoy as well as check on the calories. Totally delicious idea!
Now that is a brlilliant idea! So much calorie saving and who wouldn’t want to miss the crunch of a papdi in their chaat!