Baked Samosas

Baked Samosas mean freedom of standing over oil. Samosas make fabulous appetizers and cocktail snacks. The original recipe has been handed down to Arundathi of My Food Blog by her mother who got it from her friend Vasumathi Shah. You can see that this is a recipe that likes to travel.

Makes: 20-24 Medium Samosas

Ingredients

For the Outer Covering

• Whole Wheat flour – 1 cup (use finely ground chapati flour)
• All purpose flour – 1 cup
• Butter – 1/4 cup
• Salt to taste
• Water to knead
• Extra Flour for dusting

For the Filling

• Onion – 1 (large) finely chopped
• Green Peas – 1/2 cup parboiled
• Potatoes – 4 (medium) boiled and mashed well
• Pudina – 12-15 leaves finely chopped
• Coriander – 2 twigs finely chopped
• Ginger – 1/4 inch finely chopped
• Garlic – 2 cloves minced
• Peanuts – 1/2 cup roasted
• Turmeric – 1/4 tsp
• Chilli Powder – 1/4 tsp (adjust to taste)
• Salt to taste
• Oil – 2 tsp

Method

1. Mix the flours and the salt in a large bowl.
2. Soften the butter and combine well into the flour mix in the bowl.
3. Add water little by little to make a firm dough. You do not need to knead it too much. Knead it till the dough comes together to form a ball.
4. Pat the dough into a circle and leave it to rest for 20 minutes.
5. Prepare the filling. Heat some oil, saute the ginger and garlic till garlic turns golden. Add onions and saute till translucent. Add Pudina, Coriander, Turmeric and Salt. After the water has reduced, add the boiled and mashed potatoes. Add Chilli Powder. Mix well and keep on flame for a minute. Cool the filling.
6. Preheat the oven to 220 degrees C. Grease an oven dish with 1 tbsp Oil or Butter.
7. Divide the dough into 20 – 24 balls, each about 1 inch in diameter.
8. Take one ball and shape the samosa with the filling. Samosas can be shaped in two ways: – Roll into a triangle. Place some filling in the center. Bring edges together and seal them to form a pyramid. Pictorial here.
   - Roll into a circle. Cut half way to center on one side. Fill in the filling in one semi circle. Shape into cone. Seal edges. Pictorial here.
9. Repeat with rest of the dough. Place samosas on greased oven dish and Bake at 220 for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

Serve hot with chutney or sauce of your choice.

Source: Original recipe has been posted by Arundathi at her food blog. Recipe has been modified to replace half of the All purpose flour with Whole wheat flour. Filling varies and in our humble opinions samosa fillings are meant to be creative.

Ensure the following:

1. The choice of filling is yours and it can be modified. The filling should be dry, mashed and should not be wet or high in water content. The filling should be cooked. Stickling to the filling in the original recipe will give you very authentic samosas. We used our creative juices.
2. The dough is not to be kneaded too much. Letting dough just come together ensures that your baked samosas have a flaky crisp exterior rather than just crisp or very hard ones. You know your dough is ready, when you can easily roll it out.
3. Dough must be allowed to rest for sometime, it helps to form gluten and it helps in rolling.
4. If your oven does not heat evenly from all sides, you will need to turn the samosa mid way for even baking on both sides.
5. Do not line your baking sheet or container for crisp results.

Lakshmi’s notes:

Half of the butter can be safely replaced with oil. It gives the same results though the samosas with more butter taste richer. Vegetables represent Indian sizes, a medium onion in India may be just half an onion elsewhere, please use your discretion to interpret how much is required. Oven timings may vary, watch out for the first time to note timings for your oven. About 2 tbsp of filling is an approximate amount of filling for each samosa. Leaving the dough to chill overnight in the fridge gives better results. Pat the dough into a disc before chilling. Bring dough to room temperature before rolling. Samosas can be made well in advance, since they’re baked, they don’t lose their crispiness.

Mandira’s Notes:I made these samosas with soup for dinner. We din’t want to do any elaborate cooking yet wanted to eat something “different” and this recipe fit the “simple n quick”bill very well. I added a few tiny cubes of paneer to the filling and instead of adding the pudina in the filling I used it to make a chutney to serve with the samosas. I am not fond of peanuts, so I skipped those all together. I substituted the butter in the dough with refined oil.

PS: people, please note how neat lakshmi’s samosas are and how totallllly outa shape mine are!