Today’s recipe is a childhood favorite – Uppu Biscuit or Maida Biscuit as we used to call it. On the days we were really bored, especially during the summer vacations – amma would make this dough for us to prepare the biscuit. She would hand us each (both sister and I) a large steel plate and a roll pin. We would pinch a ball of dough and roll it and cut it into small diamonds (of course irregularly) and she would take those cut maida biscuits in batches and fry them until golden brown. The best thing is, they don’t absorb too much oil and are preferably better than store bought snacks. They would make such an awesome snack that we could munch on throughout the day. For someone like me who loved sweets, she used to dip some of them in sugar syrup and they used to lipsmackingly good too! 🙂 Last week I was reminded of these biscuits and started preparing them right away. I know it’s such a simple recipe but then I wanted to document it for the memories it carries.

  1. In a bowl, add maida/all-purpose flour, corn flour, salt and mix well. Add water little by little and make it into a soft pliable dough. Add ½ teaspoon of oil on top and let it rest for atleast 20 mins.
  2. Pinch a ball of dough and roll it into a thin circle. Dust the dough slightly if it’s too sticky. Using a knife, cut lengthwise at equal intervals. Now cut again from the other direction so as to get small squares or diamonds.
  3. In a pan, heat oil for deep frying. Keep it on medium flame. Once the oil is hot, drop these cut diamonds and fry until golden brown. Remove on to a tissue and repeat the same with rest of the dough.
  4. Store in an air tight container and serve as tea time snack! 🙂

Corn flour helps in getting crispness – fail proof. In addition to just salt, chilli powder can be added to make spicy cuts. It’s necessary to keep the oil on medium/low flame to get crispy biscuits. In an air tight container, these stay crisp and good for a week.