JEERA BISCUIT/CUMIN COOKIES

Not so sweet , not so savoury , packed with the fragrant earthy aroma of roasted zeera/ jeera as we call in Hindi for cumin seeds, these Indian bakery style egg less biscuits are perfect for our morning or evening cuppa tea.

Buttery with golden and crispy edges these cumin cookies are so addictive especially when you bake it at home. Homemade biscuit/cookies are my weakness. I must have biscuits/cookies with my morning and evening tea till the last one vanishes from the cookie jar. Not only me, everyone at home is a cookie lover and cookies do not last long in the jar. So i bake cookies frequently at home.

INGREDIENTS

The cookies are pretty easy to make with the ingredients easily available in our pantry. The base of the cookie is made with all purpose flour, butter and sugar. The star ingredient roasted cumin seeds(jeera) adds fantabulous flavour to these cookies. The mild sweetness of sugar and little savoury taste of salt is flawlessly blended in these cookies. Baking powder and baking soda makes the cookies to rise and be crisp when baked. Milk helps to bring together the cookie dough. This makes them the perfect tea time munchies.

EASY TO STORE

Storing these cookies is easier as they have good shelf life. They stay fresh up to a fortnight at room temperature if they last that long in the cookie jar. I bet it will over in less than a week.

TIPS AND TRICKS

It is very important to soften the butter to room temperature as it helps to cream it with sugar later. Always use unsalted butter as you add less or more salt as per your liking later.

Use powdered sugar as it helps to bake the cookies evenly.

Chill the cookie dough in refrigerator for 15 to 20 minutes till workable. Take out the dough , roll and shape the cookies with cookie cutter. Spread them on greased baking tray with enough spacing and again keep the tray with cookies in refrigerator for another 10 minutes. This helps to prevent cookie from spreading while baking.

Once the cookie are shaped with cookie cutter, poke with a fork all over for crispier and evenly baked cookies.

Bake the cookies in preheated oven at 160 degree centigrade for 12 minutes. First 8-9 minutes , place the tray with cookies in oven on the middle rack and the last 3-4 minutes on the upper rack. This gives nice golden colour to the cookies not only on the edges but also on the top.

You may also like recipe for Sweet M & M Cookie

Cuisine : Indian

Course : Snack

Prep time : 40 minutes (includes chilling time of dough)

Cook time : 12(8 + 4) minutes

Servings : 16-18 nos.

Ingredients

• 100 gm All purpose flour

• 50 gm Unsalted butter

• 25 gm Sugar

• 1/4 Tsp baking powder

• 1/8 Tsp baking soda

• 1/4 Tsp salt

• 1 Tsp milk

• 1 Tbsp roasted jeera(cumin seeds)

Instructions

1. Dry roast the jeera in a pan on medium flame till fragrant and golden brown or microwave in safe bowl for 40 seconds , stir in between after 20 seconds. Keep it aside.

2. In a bowl beat the softened butter for about 2 minutes with the help of hand mixer till it becomes soft and fluffy.

3. Once the butter is soft add sugar and cream the mixture till it turns pale yellow in colour.

4. Hold a sift over the bowl in which butter and and sugar is creamed and add all purpose flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda in the sift. Pass it through the sift to the bowl with butter-sugar mixture.

5. Add a tablespoon of roasted jeera / cumin seeds. Mix it thoroughly with the help of a spatula.

6. Finally add a teaspoon of milk, using your hands combine the mixture to form a dough but do not knead the dough.

7. Wrap the cookie dough in cling film and keep in refrigerator for 20 minutes.

8. Dust the working station with all purpose flour and roll out the cookie dough with the help of rolling pin carefully to 1/4 inch thickness.

9. Cut in to desired shape round/ rectangular with the help of cookie cutter and poke each cookie with a fork all over.

10. Carefully lift each cookie and place it on a greased baking tray with enough spacing and keep the tray with cookies in refrigerator for another 10 minutes.

11. While the cookies are in refrigerator , preheat the oven to 160 degree centigrade with both the rods on.

12. Take out the baking tray from refrigerator and place it on the middle rack of the oven for 8-9 minutes. After 8-9 minutes , shift the baking tray along with cookies to the top rack. Bake for another 3 to 4 minutes. Keep an eye on cookies, once the edges are golden brown and top light brown remove the cookies from the oven.

13. Allow the cookies to cool completely , hold a firm shape and crispy , crumbly texture before storing in air tight container.

14. Serve it as tea time munchies or any time snacks. ENJOY !!!

For the cookie dunker ........sweet n savoury jeera cookie with chai

If you’ve tried this Jeera Biscuit Recipe then do mention in comments how it was. I would love to hear from you.

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