Recipe: Sweet saunf and zeera butter cookies

In a bakery full of sweet delights, my Mom never understood why I would always go for the savoury cookie! My favourite among them would have to be Zeera biscuits. Here is a sweet twist to them using sugar-coated saunf and zeera. Expect a sweet, savoury, crunchy, buttery cookie that you won’t be able to stop eating! 

Makes about: 15-20 cookies

Total time: 30 minutes

Utensils required: Round cookie-cutter, baking paper, baking tray, rolling pin, electric whisk

ingredients

Salted butter 100 grams

Plain flour 175 grams

Baking powder 1-1/4 tsp

Caster sugar 50 grams

Sugar-coated aniseed (saunf) 1-1/2 tpsp

Cumin seeds (zeera) 1 tbsp

method

1. Preheat your oven to 450^o F or 230^o C.

2. In a mixing bowl, cream the butter with the sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy.

3. Slowly add the flour, zeera and 1/2 tsp of the sugar-coated saunf to the butter mixture. It should now look quite crumbly.

4. Place the crumbly mixture on a clean, floured surface and press together until it forms a dough. Now knead until it all comes together.

5. Using a floured rolling pin, roll the dough out and sprinkle remaining sugar-coated saunf on top for decoration. Then, using the cookie-cutter cut out circles and place on a baking tray which has been lined with baking paper.

6. Bake for a maximum of 7-8 minutes; keep checking to make sure that the cookie edges don’t get burnt.

7. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack and allow to cool.

Sumayya Jamil is a lawyer-turned-food writer and cookery teacher in London, who is on a mission to promote the love of Pakistani food in the UK. She blogs at pukkapaki.com

Published in The Express Tribune, Ms T, October 7^th, 2012.

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