Cookies with choco-chips or peanut bits or almonds are irresistible with a cup of tea in the evenings. When I have something sweet, naturally, I am encouraged to make a pakoda or bajji to go with it

Or I have pair the cookies with left overs from the weekend frying batch- Murukku or thattai. I was thinking of making some savory cookies, adding some potato or carrots with the usual dough, like a savory muffin or something similar to a puff and thought of all sorts of combinations to put into it.

This onion cookies are inspired from this recipe. When I baked these cookies, it gave the aroma as if I was making pakodas and I was actually waiting near the oven for these to come out!

Ingredients: (Makes about 15 cookies)

All purpose flour- 1 cup
Olive oil- 2 tbsp
Finely chopped red onions- 1/4 cup
Chopped cilantro leaves- 2 tbsp
Baking powder- 3/4 tsp
Salt to taste
Red chili powder-1/2 tsp
Roasted cumin powder- 1/2 tsp
White Sesame seeds- 1 tbsp
Water- just enough to knead

Method:

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Mix salt, baking powder, flour, roasted cumin powder, sesame seeds and red chili powder together.

Once the powders are all well mixed(otherwise one cookie is going to be salty or spicy than the other), add the chopped onions, cilantro and mix evenly.

Pour the olive oil and start kneading slowly with adding little amount of water till the crumbly texture turns to that of a chapati dough like consistency.

Dust a rolling pin with some flour and press the dough to 1/4″ thickness( or according to the thick-thin level you like). Cut the dough to any desired shape with a cookie cutter.

Arrange the cookies in a baking tray and bake at 375 for 25 minutes, or till the top turns slight golden brown in color. The cookie may look unbaked but it will bake as it cools. Even if it is undone, you can slightly bake it again.

Serve the cookies with tea. These are baked, but they were crunchy! If you like you can also add some peanuts or roasted salted cashews with the onions.

These Onion Cookies are going to a Bakeoff event at Versatile Kitchen.

These cookies are also my entry for Srivalli’s Kids delight Snacks event.

While browsing through other blogs I saw an version of savory biscuits(crackers). It was an interesting recipe as each one had either a combination of masala powders or grains or nuts and herbs. Over the weekend I made a batch of these crackers to munch with tea in the evening and the best part is it is not a deep fried snack like a bajji or pakoda.

These are very simple, takes about 15-20 minutes and you can make varieties of crackers every time with a basic recipe.

Ingredients: (Makes about 15 large crackers)

Wheat flour- 3/4 cup
All purpose flour- 1/2 cup
Rice Flour- 1/4 cup
Salt to taste
Baking powder- 1 tsp
Red pepper flakes- 1-2 pinches
Roasted cumin powder- 1/4 tsp
Cumin seeds- 1/2 tsp
Sesame seeds- 1 tsp
Olive oil- 1 tbsp
Water- to knead (1/2-1 cup approx)

Method:

Pre heat the oven to 350 F.

Mix all flours together, add salt and baking powder to the flours. Add roasted cumin powder, red pepper flakes, sesame seeds and cumin seeds. Add olive oil to the flour and knead lightly to get a crumbly texture. Start adding water slowly till you can knead it like a chapati dough(firmer, not a soft dough).

Dust the rolling pin with some flour and flatten out the dough to 1/4″ thickness. With a cookie cutter (I used a round shape), cut the dough into desired shape. I made some like sticks(strands) and some into round shapes.

In a baking tray, line up the crackers and bake at 350 for 20 minutes till the top of the crackers look golden in color. Do not keep baking till it looks like a well done cracker, as that will be too hard to even take a bite. Most cookies and crackers will bake as they cool, so take them out and let it sit on the counter top. Even if they are undone, you can slightly bake them again. Once the crackers have cooled, store them in an air tight container or a jar. Use it within 2-3 days.

Serve with tea for the evenings or with any dips. These crackers are going to Divya’s Sunday Snacks event.

During my school days in the evenings I would take the bus to a bus stop near home and walk from there. On the way, there used to be this Bangalore Iyengar Bakery selling couple of goodies all freshly made and that too without eggs. The entire place would be filled different aromas from Butter Biscuits, Egg puffs, Masala Bread, Iced Buns, Coconut buns, Tooty-fruity-cherry breads,Samosas,Cutlets etc etc. And the cost of these items would be less than 10 rupees. Often, mom or dad will give some money as a treat to buy these and munch on the way home. Sometimes, these snacks would be waiting for us at home as a surprise after school snacks.  The taste of Iyengar bakery snacks is just amazing and even thinking about it makes me drool. Just the name itself would indicate quality of the products and freshness.

Now when I am running the kitchen department,I plan and cook something for Lunch and Dinner but when the  tea time comes, I give up on healthy eating and munch on chips, french fries, samosas or bajjis. If and only if Iyengar bakery would start a branch abroad where there are lot of desis, I am sure they would give a run for their money to McDonalds or Burger King.

Hubby grew up in Bangalore and we would often talk about the goodies we used to eat from Iyengar bakery. His favorite is egg puffs while mine is masala bread and butter biscuit. These butter biscuits are somewhat similar to the short bread cookies  but the only difference is the recipe has no eggs. The biscuits turned out to be yummy and we finished the first batch in a flash- warm from the oven, chewy and just melts in the mouth. These biscuits also store well and can be kept in a airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Ingredients (Makes about 25 biscuits)

All purpose flour- 1 cup  and an additional 1/4 cup (I measured in a 200 ml glass)

Baking powder- 1 pinch

Un-salted butter- 3/4th of a whole stick at room temperature.

Salt- 1 pinch

Sugar- 3/4 of the same measuring cup

Method:

Before baking the biscuit, let the butter sit at room temperature for a couple of hours (use a bowl so that even if it melts you can collect it).

Mix this butter, sugar, baking powder, salt and one cup of  flour. Do not use a blender to blend. Do not knead roughly. Just gently mix all ingredients. If the butter absorbs all the flour and is still runny use the additional flour to bind the ingredients. This biscuit dough will not be like a cookie dough as we did not use eggs. The dough will be slightly powdery-falling apart and you cannot shape it. But thats OK.

Keep this dough inside a refrigerator for 15 minutes. Pre heat the oven to 375.

Line a baking sheet with tin foil. There is no need to dust the pan as there is enough butter in the dough and the biscuit will not stick to the pan.

Scoop about a tablespoon of the dough and slightly squeeze it into a ball and place it on the baking sheet. In a similar way, arrange other biscuits in the tray. Bake at 375 for only 8-10 minutes to a slight golden color. The biscuits will be slightly runny/looking undone but they will harden as they cool.

When I made this biscuit, I divided the dough into two batches to check if I had added enough flour to butter ratio. Sometimes, butter would be more than the flour and biscuits will be slightly soft. Check the first batch and adjust the ratio for the other batches.You can adjust the amount of sugar added to the biscuit too.

Serve the biscuits with samosas, cutlets with tea or just munch it as you wish

I am sending this butter biscuit to WYF Tea Time Snack Event hosted by EC.