About Thattai

Thattai are basically flat, spiced rice flour discs (puris) that are deep fried until crisp & golden. These are a traditional Tamilian snack made during festivals like Krishna Jayanthi and Deepavali. Thattai are minimally spiced with red chilli powder and hing. They are flavored with butter, curry leaves and sesame seeds. For an added crunch and texture a small amount of soaked chana dal (Bengal gram) is added while making the dough. Similar versions of Thattai are made in the neighboring states of Tamil Nadu. They are known as Nippattu in Karnataka and Chekkalu in Andhra Pradesh. However all these 3 are different in texture and taste as they are made with different proportions of flour, spices and other ingredients. Each home has their own recipe of making these to suit their personal preference. This recipe yields light, tasty and crispy thattai that you can make during festivals or all around the year to serve as a tea time snack. Making perfectly crunchy traditional rice flour snacks begins with rinsing the rice well, draining and drying. Then milled to flour as the fresh ground flour enhances the aroma & texture of these snacks. To make thattai and murukku, I follow the same traditional method & make rice flour at home using raw rice during festivals. However this time I have made these using store bought rice flour. If you have a helping hand home then I suggest making thattai with homemade rice flour as they taste the best. If using store bought rice flour make sure you use the one from an Indian brand preferably South Indian brands. There are tons of varieties of rice flour available in the market – made with long rice, sticky rice, glutinous rice, boiled rice etc. Many of these do not work well to make these rice crackers. Unknowingly I had tried these snacks a few years ago with different kinds of flours and they turned out to be soft within hours. So the key to tasty and crunchy thattai is good rice flour. If you are a beginner, I would highly recommend watching the thattai recipe video and the following the step by step photo instructions. More Diwali Snacks Recipes,Butter murukkuRibbon pakodaMurukkuChakli

How to Make Thattai (Stepwise Photos)

Preaparation

  1. Wash and soak 1 tablespoon chana dal for 1 hour. Drain it completely to a small strainer like a tea strainer and set aside.
  2. Roast 1½ teaspoons urad dal or peanuts on a low to medium flame till golden & aromatic. Keep stirring while roasting as you want to roast them evenly. Cool completely. If using peanuts, then remove the skin.
  3. Add roasted & cooled dal and 2 tablespoons fried gram to a blender jar. If using peanuts, first powder the roasted urad dal very fine. Then add peanuts and make a coarse powder. You can also powder 1 tablespoon sesame seeds called for in the recipe. This is optional.
  4. Grind to a fine powder.

Make Dough

  1. Add 1 cup rice flour, urad dal and fried gram flour, ½ teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon red chili powder, drained soaked chana dal and 1 tablespoon crushed sesame seeds. Sometimes sesame seeds splutter while frying, so make sure they are lightly crushed with a rolling pin before adding.
  2. Add 1 sprig finely chopped curry leaves and 1 tablespoon unsalted butter.
  3. Mix up gently to incorporate the butter and then add ¼ cup water. Do not pour lot of water at one time. Keep mixing and add more water only as required to make a stiff dough.
  4. Make a stiff and non sticky soft dough.
  5. Divide the dough to 14 to 16 balls. Keep these balls covered as we don’t want them to dry out.

Make Thattai

  1. Spread a dry cloth. Grease your fingers. Begin to make thattai by flattening the dough ball.
  2. Flatten the dough as much as possible. You will see the balls begin to crack towards the edges. That is just fine, join up the cracks. Grease your fingers as needed. You can also flatten these with the base of a greased steel bowl or a greased lid. I am comfortable making these with fingers as the thattai turns out even with fingers.
  3. Make these thin as shown in the picture. Too thin thattai will break while you lift and too thick ones will not turn crisp. So make them moderately thin. Keep these covered with a cloth or parchment papper so they don’t dry out.
  4. Heat oil in a deep kadai on a medium heat. When the oil is hot enough, drop a small flat piece of dough to check if the oil is hot enough. The dough should come up to the surface and not sink to the bottom. Slide thattai in the hot oil from the sides. Take cake while you slide it. Do not disturb for 2 minutes after adding. Turn them to the other side and fry on both sides until golden & crisp. You can fry more than one thattai at one time if there is enough space in the kadai.
  5. The bubbles begin to reduce when they are well fried. Drain them to a cooling rack or a steel colander. Cool them completely. They will look very oil as soon as you remove them from oil but then nothing much would be on the surface or in the thattai later after cooling.

Storing Thattai

Now comes the very important part of storing them well. Not only the method of preparing thattai even the way they are stored is very important to keep them fresh and crispy for many days. Do use a clean and moisture free air tight container. I use air tight stainless steel containers to store thattai, chakli, murukku. Do not leave them too long to the air/fan/ air con once they are cooled down. As soon as you notice them cooled transfer them to the jar. Thattai should be completely cool before moving to the jar. These keep good for 2 weeks. Related Recipes

Recipe Card

Thattai Recipe first published in July 2017. Updated & Republished in October 2022.