Maida Chakkuli/Chakli

Maida Chakkuli is a very tasty snack. I got this recipe from my mother. She used to make these for us when we were kids. I used to help her in making them. Its a little time consuming to make these absolutely 'melt in your mouth' chaklis. But I promise its worth your efforts. 

This is my third attempt in making them. Somehow the proportions were not working.  Finally I could make the perfect ones with the measurement mentioned below. Try it and I am sure you can impress your loved ones with a little extra Love and Effort:-)

Ingredients:

• All Purpose Flour/ Maida- 2 cups
• Split Blackgram/ Urad dal- 1/3 cup
• Melted Butter- 1 tsp
• Black (or white) Sesame seeds- 1 tsp
• Cumin seeds/ Jeera- 1 tsp
• Salt- To taste
• Oil- For Deep frying

Procedure:

Step 1: Take All purpose flour in a cotton cloth and tie it tightly so that it is closed from all sides.

Now steam the maida (in cloth) for 15 minutes.

Once done allow it to cool for few minutes. It looks like this after steaming.

Once the flour is warm, it becomes easy to handle. Start breaking the lumps using your hand (because once it cools down completely, it hardens and hence more effort is required to break the lumps).

Then sieve it to get a lump free flour.

Step 2: Start roasting the urad dal on a medium flame until it turns little more than light brown and allow it to cool (don't burn it).

Once it is completely cold, grind it into a fine powder and then sieve it.

Step 3: Now take a big mixing bowl and add the All purpose flour got from step 1, urad dal powder got from step 2, cumin seeds, sesame seeds, melted butter and salt. Mix it well.

Add water in small quantities and make a soft dough.

Keep the oil for heating on a medium-high. Now take the chakli making press. I used the plate having one hole.

Now divide the dough into two parts. Keep one part of the mixture closed (to avoid drying) and the other part in the mould. Now start rotating it in clockwise direction and make small/big chakli (the free end of the chakli should be sealed. Otherwise there are chances of  it opening up).

You can make chaklis on a newspaper (as required for one batch. Don't make too much of them in advance. It will dry and fall apart while frying). I made 4-5 per batch . 

Then transfer it to hot oil carefully.

Fry them evenly on both sides, until they turn light brown (another indication of the end point is the bubbles stop forming). Take it out and drain the excess oil on a paper towel.

Maida Chakkuli is ready!!

Allow it to cool then store them in an air tight container.