How to make Namkeen Mathi/Mathri? Namkeen Mathi/Mathri translates to salty, chewy, and crisp biscuits in English.

http://www.tarladalal.com/Namkeen-Mathri-10381r


  Ingredients
  2 cups plain flour (maida)  
  
  Method
  2. Add just enough water to the flour mixture and knead into a hard dough.



How hard should the dough be so that the resultants biscuits are chewy NOT HARD?
Why can't pure Wheat flour replace Maida since the recipe asks for a hard dough?


http://goodethnicveggiedelights.blogspot.in/2011/05/mathri-traditional-indian-namkeen.html


  Recipe Ingredients
  * Semolina (suji) - 1/3 cup


Above recipe asks only for Maida, but this one (for the same dish) asks for Semolina as well.  


What would addition of Semolina do to the Namkeen Mathri?
If your dough has little cracks on it on the sides when you roll out balls from it or doesn't easily sink in when you press it with your finger as bread dough does, its hard dough. Normally, the folds on a hard dough don't easily mix in. This image shows how a hard dough looks like.

Namkeen Mathri usually tastes like the cover for samosa with added salts and spices. Using wheat is also okay. But definitely tastes better with Maida instead of wheat.

Mathris are usually rolled on semolina before they are fried to give them little extra crunch and grainy texture.