Recipe: Taruna's Bakery-Style Karachi Biscuits

Baking those square, melt-in-your-mouth biscuits made famous by Hyderabad's Karachi Bakery is easier than you'd think.

Make a batch of Karachi Biscuits, also known as the Fruit and Nut Biscuits or Tutti Frutti Biscuits, with Taruna Deepak's recipe.

Ideal for dunking in a steaming hot cup of coffee or chai, they are great teatime delights -- the addition of candied fruits and nuts make these biscuits delish.

Turn out a batch on the weekend, so your family can enjoy these fruity biscuits through the week.

Taruna, a food blogger, says most of the recipes on her blog are either her own or those passed down to her by her mom. But the most important lesson her mother taught her was to 'cook with passion and serve with love'.

Photograph: Kind courtesy Taruna Deepak

Karachi Biscuits

Servings: 24 pieces

Ingredients

½ cup castor sugar (a kind of finer sugar manufactured by top baking brands)
120 gm butter
¾-1 tsp or rose essence or pineapple essence, or add to taste
1 cup maida or all-purpose flour
½ cup aata or wholemeal or wholewheat flour
¼ cup vanilla custard powder (please see the note below)
¼-½ tsp green elaichi or cardamom powder
¼ tsp salt
½ cup tutti frutti or mixed candied, dehydrated fruits, finely chopped
½ cup nuts like almonds, cashews, pistachios, finely chopped
Few tsp milk, optional

Method

Whisk together the maida, whole-wheat aata, custard powder, cardamom powder and salt.
Keep aside.
In a mixing bowl, whisk together the castor sugar, butter, till the mixture turns pale and fluffy.
Add in the rose or pineapple essence (whichever you are using).
Gently fold in the flour-aata mix, nuts, candied fruits.
Do not over mix.
Add 1-2 tsp milk if the dough does not come together, but if the butter and the sugar were well whisked, milk is not required.
Divide the dough into 2 portions and roll each into a long round or square log and wrap them separately in cling film.
Refrigerate for at least 1½ hours or till the dough logs become firm.
Heat the oven to 180°C for 10-15 minutes.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or butter paper.
Keep aside.
Take the 2 logs of biscuit dough out from the fridge, remove the cling wrap, and using a sharp knife, cut the dough logs into ¼-inch thick slices.
Place each slice at least 1 inch apart on the baking sheet.
Bake in the pre-heated oven for 15-20 minutes or till the biscuits begin to turn golden brown around the edges.
Take the biscuits out of the oven and cool for a couple of minutes.
Carefully ease the biscuits from the sheet and place on a wire rack to cool completely.
Serve these fruity biscuits with coffee or tea or dunk them in milk.

Editor's Note: Taruna prefers to use Foster Clarks brand of custard powder.

Vegans may substitute butter with cashew butter in this recipe.

For gluten-free biscuits, you could use oat flour.

Taruna puts 1 tsp rose essence1 in her biscuits. Rose essence is a strong flavouring and may not be to everyone's liking, so either add sparingly or skip or use pineapple essence. The biscuits will be just as good without either essence given they have vaniilla flavouring too.