Description
Diamond shaped deep fried biscuits, a crunchy snack for any occasion.Diamond biscuits / Maida cuts / Maida biscuits / Shankarpali / deep fried snack
| Ingredients | |
|---|---|
| 1½ cup | Maida |
| ¼ cup | Water (or as required) |
| 1/2 cup | Sugar |
| 1 pinch | Baking soda |
| 1 pinch | Salt |
| 1½ tablespoons | Ghee / dalda |
Instructions
Before proceeding powder the sugar and slightly warm the water. Now mix the sugar and warm water until all the sugar is completely dissolves. Bring the ghee or dalda to room temperature and mix baking soda in it. Using your finger, mix the ghee and soda in circular motion to form a foamy or gooey paste. Heat oil and let stay on medium high temperature while you make these diamond cuts.
Combine maida and paste made with soda and ghee. This will make the flour slightly to crumbly texture. Now slowly add water and knead to form a dough. Use the exact water measure, this will result in soft and firm dough. Now divide this into 5 equal portions. Roll one portion to form a big disc, it has to be thin similar to our poori. Using a special spoon (as shown) or knife cut the rolled out poori. (Use vertical and horizontal lines) to form diamond shaped cuts. Carefully remove them and place them over a clean paper towel and repeat the procedure for rest of the dough balls.
When ready deep fry them over medium high flame until golden and drain excess oil. Cool completely and store in air-tight box.
Key for good results:
1. Once the flame is medium high, drop the diamond cuts, then reduce the flame to medium and turn them couple of times to ensure even frying and browning/. When done the vigorous bubbles stops and that’s the indication its done. Keeping too long in oil will make them very hard. Frying over low flame will make them sink and soak more oil.
2. Don’t keep the kneaded dough for long time, finish off once you start. Or Else the dough becomes very stiff yielding hard biscuits.
3. All-purpose flour works too. Double bleached all purpose flour is maida.
4. Sugar has to completely dissolve in water before mixing in maida to ensure even distribution of sweetness and texture.
5. Always try a sample batch, immediately after frying the biscuits will be very chewy and soft. Let cool completely and then try it. After completely cooling they will be crispy. So… don’t assume anything immediately, wait with patience and then test.
18 Comments
i have tried this out differently if you dont mind i can share the proportions
1cup ghee/dalda, 1 cup sugar,1 cup water, 4 cups maida.. heat the water, ghee, sugar till warm n then make the dough using the maida.. can add more maida if needed to make a soft dough. the rest of the steps are the same .. this turns out crunchy on the outside n flaky on the inside.
Hi Murali,
I like this snak dish very much. When i was childhood i used to prepare this dish experimently with my moms help.
Hemamalini
Hi Mullai Akka,
This is one of my vry vry (all time) favourite snack.
My aunt frm B’glore used to make this for us.Best part is she used to tell us all her childhood stories while makng this.
That was a wonderful time.This one immediately reminds me of her(she is no more..thgh..).
Thank u Akka,for sharing this grt snack with us.
Will try this soon abd let you knw the results.
Rohini
Dear Mullai, I really like your attitude.. You are so graceful in accepting mistakes.. I think the sugar granules we get in different countries are diff..and may be the one I get here becomes more watery.. I cant think of any other reason as u and also many more friends are getting it right. I think now it should be fine.
Hi Mullai.. very sorry to say that for the first time one of your recipes has goofed up 🙁 I had proceeded exactly as per your measurements and found that the water+ sugar mixture was extra for the dough.. but i still proceeded with addind the half cup of water and the resultant dough was very sticky like a paste..so i added more and more maida till i got a pliable dough and proceeded with the remaining steps. Just now i have finished frying the biscuits and i have got perfect diamond shaped (not so sweet) pooris 😉 I still have more dough left and am planning to convert it into sweet stuffed parathas as i dont want to proceed further. Can you pl look into the recipe ? I have also noticed 2 other friends having the same problem. Sorry for pointing out and the intention is definitely not fault finding.. I have successfully tried out so many of your recipes.. May be this one needs little more clarification. 🙂
Hi Sudha,
Let me check.., few other friends also had the same problem, don't no what went wrong. Still I have the same old recipe… guess I had to try again. Nothing wrong in pointing out, glad you did. We all make mistakes and Iam no exception.. let me try again and update. Until then I shall make it (as required) in the recipe.
hi mullai, how r u? In my childhood days my amma used to do this one, this biscuit is crunchy and one of my favorite olden biscuit. looks crispy.
hi mullai, tried this yday..came out very nicely..thanks a ton…made the spicy version of this by adding little chilli powder and salt to the maida dough..thank you once again
meenu
diamond biscuits looks superb and also tempting.
Mullai, we tried this, but half cup of water along with sugar was more…….. for the maida.. so i was forced to add more maida…is water measurement correct?
Yes , I too faced the same problem…Mullai…any idea why it can happen like that though we followed the same measurement? I then added more maida…and then ran out of maida…and then added lit bit of rice flour and then made it and end result was good anyway….
Jayanthi and VKVpinchat, the water measure is right and its 1/2 cup for 1 & 1/2 cup maida. I just used little maida for dusting while rolling out. Other than that everything is right as far as I know. Thanks.
Error in first line..Instead of slightly warm the water you have mistyped it as slightly water the warm…change it..sorry to point it out..errors are common part of our life..genuises make small error in their work and that's the case with u..
Hi Dvece, thanks I did fix it.
I would love the spicy version too please… Thanks!
Here is my spicy version-
http://spiceindiaonline.com/methi_puri_0
Hi Mullai.. This is my fav biscuit.. my mom used to make when i was a kid.. Thanks for posting.. Is there a spicy version for this one??
Priyakrish
methi puri http://spiceindiaonline.com/methi_puri_0