Delicious Salt Biscuits/ Cookies akka melt in mouth salted shortbread cookies goes well with cup of tea or coffee.
Salt Biscuits/Cookies From Hyderabad, India: Authentic Cookie From Land of Nizam. Basically a simple salted shortbread cookies usually eaten during drinking tea.
History of Salt Biscuits/Cookies :
Irani cafes are the most famous for serving thousands of people every day in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad, in state of Andhra Pradesh, India. Both old and newest part of cities is famous for its Irani tea and its cookies / biscuits. Most predominantly you can see people sipping tea and enjoying the biscuits by dipping it in their tea and having it. It may happen between routine casual conversations or between serious political discussions.
I been to Hyderabad and Secunderabad, but did not get a chance to try the famous Irani chai and Osmania biscuits and salt biscuits. I was busy running around main tourist attractions and got less chance to explore the cities as a whole. But I saw few YouTube videos about Irani Chaiand Osmania biscuit and salt biscuits and coincidently find another You Tube video making them. So the chef in me got excited as usual, and I jumped at the prospect of making them. Recipe adapted from Flavors of India Travelogue, from the Pista House Bakery and Sweets. Hyderabad.
I had already made Osmania biscuits and those were delicious, so I decided to make this salt biscuits/cookie. It is one of the most popular of my recipes next to Thai banana roti. I am really proud of that. I am updating some of the pictures on my post, but not re-posting it. I seen a trend of reposting the recipe in blog because the first time they didn’t get enough readers, I don’t like that idea. Trust me if somebody want to really try it, they will try it irrespective of number of comments.
My mom loved cookies with sugar and salt in them. Although all cookies have salt, these salt biscuits/cookies have salt in slightly higher amount, and you can feel the salt taste. Her favorites were a biscuit called 50/ 50, and Krack Jack. At that time, my favorite was cream filled cookies, and not much demand for this salt biscuits, and my mom used to finish it. My father has a sweet tooth so he loves sweet cookies compared to the salt version. I was planning to make it for long time, but I needed custard powder as one of ingredients. In Indian store, I was able to find only Vanilla flavored one. At first it was hesitant to buy it, as it is flavored, but then not finding any other choice I bought it and used for this recipe.
Due to my bread baking stint I have weighing balance in hand, so used that and made the cookies according to weight measures. In the video I have seen on You Tube they are using baker’s ammonia too; however I was not able to find them so I used baking powder. Instead of margarine, I used both vegetable shortening and butter. I added a small amount of egg to the recipe as mentioned in the original. If you are strict vegetarian and would no to egg, you can skip it. Both Osmania and Salt biscuits are soft but crispy cookies. It is easy to put together. If you like salty side in a cookie and love to have with a tea or coffee go for it.
I am happy that my salted short bread cookies looks similar to those sell in Irani cafes and bakeries, confirmed with this pictures from blog.
Here goes the recipe.
In a bowl of kitchen-aid stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment cream shortening, butter and sugar .Then add egg and mix everything well and set aside.
In a bowl sift flour, salt, custard powder, milk powder and baking powder and this flour mixture to egg –shortening and butter mixture and water to form smooth dough.
If you want you can freeze the dough at this point. When you are ready to bake bring it back to room temperature and bake.
Preheat oven to 375 F
Transfer the dough onto slightly floured surface, spread it into ¼ inch thick sheet, prick all over the dough surface with fork (if you have fancy device in your collection use it now). Cut it into thin rounds with a 2 ¼ inch biscuit cutter. Cookies should be thinner than Osmania biscuits.
Bake for about 15 minutes or until it become golden brown in color.
Enjoy with Irani chai or any tea with milk.
Salt Biscuits/ Cookies
Delicious Salt Biscuits/ Cookies akka melt in mouth salted shortbread cookies goes well with cup of tea or coffee.
Servings: 18 cookies
Calories: 118kcal
Ingredients
- 125 g Margarine/butter combo 4 ½ tablespoon vegetable shortening and 4 ½ tablespoon butter
- 250 g / 1 ¾ cup All purpose flour/ Maida
- 6.25 g / 2 ½ teaspoon Custard powder I used Vanilla flavored Custard Powder
- 6.25 g/ 1 ¼ teaspoon Salt
- 6.25 g/4 teaspoon Milk powder
- 62.5 g/ ⅓ cup Sugar
- ½ teaspoon Baking soda Use 6.25g of baker’s ammonia if you have in your hand
- 50 ml/ 5 tablespoon Water
- ¼ th of Large Egg
Instructions
- In a bowl of kitchenaid stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment cream shortening, butter and sugar .Then add egg and mix everything well and set aside.
- In a bowl sift flour, salt, custard powder, milk powder and baking powder and this flour mixture to egg –shortening and butter mixture and water to form smooth dough.
- If you want you can freeze the dough at this point. When you are ready to bake bring it back to room temperature and bake.
- Preheat oven to 375 F
- Transfer the dough onto lightly floured surface, spread it into ¼ inch thick sheet, prick all over the dough surface with fork (if you have fancy device in your collection use it now). Cut it into thin rounds with a 2 ¼ inch biscuit cutter. Cookies should be thinner than Osmania biscuits.
- Bake for about 15 minutes or until it become golden brown in color.
- Enjoy with Irani chai or any tea with milk.
Notes
This recipe is adapted from here
Nutrition
Calories: 118kcal | Carbohydrates: 15g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 6g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Cholesterol: 4mg | Sodium: 237mg | Potassium: 25mg | Fiber: 0.4g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 256IU | Vitamin C: 0.05mg | Calcium: 10mg | Iron: 1mg
Tried this recipe?Mention @nidhinikhil or tag #zestysouthindiankitchenrecipes!
This is Swathi ( Dr. Ambujom Saraswathy Ph.D) from Zesty South Indian Kitchen who loves to explore cuisines from all over the world. Whenever possible I try to to give an Indian touch to several of the world cuisine, and has weakness for freshly baked bread. All the recipes you see here are created by me and approved after taste-test by my family.
Anil says
Swati
I was hoping you could help me with this. The receipe says 5.5 tbls of butter and margarine...but that is about 85 grams each. Your instructions say 25g. Could you clarify what is the correct amount?
Swathi says
There is typo it is about half of the flour amount, so I have updated the recipe, it is 250g flour, you need 125g butter and margrine combo. Hope this helps.
kmk mahesh says
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
The 21st Century Housewife© says
I enjoyed learning about these special cookies, and they sound delicious! I do like things with a bit of a salty flavour, and I love dipping my biscuits in my tea 🙂
Cynthia L. says
These look so good and easy too! I would love to give this a try. Found your page from YBR and look forward to seeing what else you have to offer. I am now following your facebook and your blog!
Cynthia at http://Feedingbig.blogspot.com
Marlys-thisandthat says
These sound so good...
Julie says
Yummy biscuits,adding custard powder adds flavor to it:)
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Hema says
Beautiful clicks, and the cookies look so yumm..
mjskit says
What beautiful cookies and lovely pictures!!!
Ericka Breedlove says
These look great! Thanks for sharing on Foodie Friends Friday!
Veena Theagarajan says
super crunchy biscuit
great-secret-of-life.blogspot.com
♥peachkins♥ says
These look delicious!
Navaneetham Krishnan says
I am amazed with your baking skills and the biscuits is certainly mind blowing. Lovely and am can't get enough of admiring the pics.
Shabbu says
Perfect and yummy biscuits..
Shabbu's Tasty Kitchen
runnergirlinthekitchen.blogspot.com says
These look so good, would love to munch with my tea 🙂
Reeni Pisano says
Your biscuits are perfect Swathi and so delicious looking! These are something new for me would love to give them a try.
Sanoli Ghosh says
A great and absolutely yummy biscuit recipe Swathi. Delicious and perfect dear.
today's recipe:
http://sanolisrecipies.blogspot.com/2012/10/chicken-salsa-enchilada.html
Rekha says
very perfect and delicious .
http://www.indiantastyfoodrecipes.com/
Nivedhanams Sowmya says
oh these look so much better than the Marie biscuit!!!
Sowmya
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Coral Crue says
looks lovely nom nom
Swasthi says
using custard powder is new to me. Thanks for sharing this great recipe
Balvinder Ubi says
Krack Jacks and good day biscuits were my favorite when I used to eat them. These salt cookies look delicious jut like the krack jack ones.
Priya says
Can i get few rite now, they looks absolutely super crunchy and quite addictive.
Elisabeth says
Swathi, I'm just so far behind with my commenting since Thurs. with our storms/winds/power outage...and still maintaining every day 'life' in general.
I adore your crispy/clean slightly 'sweet/salty biscuit/cookies. So perfect with an afternoon nice cup of hot tea! As I pinned it on Pinterest, and Google+ it; as usual, I got distracted on Pinterest, finding other pins to repin...so addictive, just like your awesome biscuit/cookies!
Thanks for sharing the interesting story behind it, and the great recipe:)
Sayantani says
love these biscuits with evening cuppa.
Vimitha Anand says
Crunchy n yummy cracked would be perfect with tea
suhaina aji says
wow..biscuits looks crunchy and yumm. love the clicks.
srividhya Ravikumar says
wonderful presentaion swathi... love the biscuit too.
http://www.vidhuskitchen.com
Guru Uru says
I love how they are not overly sweet, yum 😀
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Angie's Recipes says
I want some for my afternoon tea!
Marus says
Delicius and perfect for to take a coffee with milk.
Good day
Mich PieceofCake says
This looks great for a tea time break....
PT says
perfect with a cup of tea..
Amrita Vishal says
Your biscuits have come out so lovely ..actually feel like picking one and dunking in my tea !!
Nandini says
Wow! Nice crunchy biscuits! So delicious and lovely!
Roha says
lovely biscuits.
Suja Manoj says
Lovely biscuits,perfect with a cup of tea,love the addition of custard powder..yummy
Lizzy Do says
Sweet and salty...they sound perfect to serve with my afternoon tea! Have a wonderful weekend!!!
radha says
These are lovely. They are a class of their own, these salt biscuits served in Irani restaurants. Do you also make Osmania biscuits?
Swathi Iyer says
Yes I made Osmania biscuits also. Here is the link; http://www.zestysouthindiankitchen.com/2010/08/osmania-biscuit-authentic-short-bread.html
Renata says
Perfect biscuits, they look delicious, and so beautifully made Swathy!
divya says
wonderful clicks. The biscuits look mouthwatering.
సిరి says
Aaa ah lovely biscuits...