Khara Biscuit for ICC-May

For this month’s Indian Cooking Challenge (ICC), Srivalli wanted us to make an Indian baked goodie. We are using Champa’s Khara biscuit recipe that makes savory, melt in your mouth cookies that are a snap to make.

This is the first time ever we baked for ICC and I was really excited about the challenge, since I’ve never made savory cookies before. The recipe also requires very few ingredients and needs less than 30 minutes of hands on time.

Even though the recipe is simple enough to make, I had to get some help to make these yummy goodies. My 3 year old had a blast making (messing up) the cookies. Here’s how I made them.

Champa's Original recipe here.

Ingredients:
All purpose flour – 2 cups
Butter – 1/3 cup, softened
Yogurt – 4tbsp (original recipe had only 2-3 tbsp, but I added a little more than 4tbsp to get the correct consistency of the dough)
Sugar – 4tsp
Salt – 1tsp
Pepper – 2tsp
Cilantro – 2tbsp, finely chopped

Method:

• Preheat oven to 325°F. Cover 2 baking sheets with parchment papers and set aside.
• Whisk flour, salt and pepper in a small bowl and set aside.
• Cream butter and sugar in a medium bowl, until light and fluffy. Add 2tbsp yogurt and continue to beat.
• Next add flour mixture and beat slowly. The mixture was pretty dry, so I used my hands to incorporate all the ingredients and added an additional 2tbsp of yogurt to make a smooth, non-sticky dough. Add chopped cilantro and work it into the dough.
• Roll the dough into ¼” thickness.
• Use cookie cutter or bottle lids to cut the cookies. Place them on the prepared baking sheets.
• Bake for 18-20 minutes.

Enjoy with a cup of tea (You can tell from my half filled cup that I'm not a tea drinker :-) . We usually serve a sweet (dessert) with a hot (savory) when serving tea, so I made Champa's Ricotta coconut fudge. The only modification I made to the recipe is that I added 1 cup of coconut powder along with 1 cup of roasted ground cashews, this is one quick and easy dessert that can whipped up in no time. Thanks to Champa for both the recipes and thanks to Valli for choosing this savory snack for ICC.