Kerala Bakery Style Biscuits | Eggless Butter Biscuits | Stovetop Cookies ~ Step by Step Pics

How are your preparations going on for Christmas ?? Am running out of time this week and hardly find myself some free time. I have started my preparations, need to go home so my bakes have started early to bake the rich and moist Kerala plum cake. Beetroot wine is ready which I posted earlier and a few snack goodies are now getting ready too. Every year I make many sweet goodies like Achappam & Kulkul for Christmas. Kids love festive cookies too, a few of them I have already posted here(pls check at the end of this post ). Today's post is yet another biscuit that you find in Kerala bakeries which I was very fond of as a child. Reminds me of my childhood days when good bakeries had these cute red hat cookies kept in glass jars. They are so addictive, melt in mouth ones and crumbles easily. These are so easy to put together and this time I tried baking them on stovetop for an easy go. And am very happy with the results, they have turned perfect like any other oven bake cookie. If you are running out of time and you need a quick item for Christmas then here it is. Do give this a try and tastes delicious. I had a little idea of this cookie and I had been doing trial and error with some maesures since long to actually get the real bakery flavors. Sometimes the oil goes high, sometimes they are under baked, sometimes its crumbled on baking so on and so forth. But this time I was close to the bakery ones and thought to share the recipe with you all.

Pottukadala(roasted chana gram) is added in these cookies which elevates the taste and flavour, butter gives that soft crumbly feel. The dough just comes together to hold as a ball and is not very sticky unlike other cookie dough. Refrigeration is important else the butter will melt down and you will not get that perfect cookie. Try these out, am sure you will definitely thank me for showcasing an old forgotten bakery snack. And lemme warn you that you can't just stop munching one.

 Preparation time ~ 10 minutes
Resting time ~ 30 minutes
Baking time ~ 15-20 minutes
Serves ~ 16-18 cookies
Author ~ Julie
Ingredients
maida / all purpose flour  1 cup     
pottukadala(roasted chana dal) 2 tbsp or 1/4 cup                       
granulated sugar  1/2 cup
unsalted butter 2 tbsp     
oil 1/2 cup (any neutral oil)             
cardamom powder / elakka podi 1/2 tsp     or cardamom pods 3-4               
baking powder 1/2 tsp                                                     
salt 1/4 tsp                               

to garnish
half cut glazed cherries
black sesame seeds 2 tsp

Method

• Swift the flour, baking powder and salt twice. Keep aside.
• Powder the sugar, pottukadala and cardamom pods together until finely powdered. Add to the flour mix.
• Rub the cold butter in the flour mix like we do for puff pastry dough. Take a good time of 2 minutes to rub in the flour. 
• Add in the oil little by little so that the dough starts to come together. If you try making a ball it should form a ball. At this stage, refrigerate the flour mix for 30 mins.

• In the meantime cut out half cherries, keep ready.
  Also the sesame seeds.
• After half an hour, take out the dough and pinch out small portions like gooseberry size. Press in your palm to shape the biscuits. Place a cherry or sesame seeds on top and press lightly. Place the biscuits on a butter or oil greased plate (I have used a steel plate) leaving 1" space in between because these biscuits flatten as it cooks.
• Now heat a thick bottomed pan or cooker (I have used an anodized pan) and add half cup salt to the pan( I have used the salt which I used earlier for baking so there is colour discolouration in pics). Place another pan/ utensil to give height to the cookie plate so that there is enough height between the heat and the cookie tray. 

• Heat the pan for 5-7 mins on low flame and then place the cookie plate( the cookie plate should be such that it shouldn't touch the sides of the pan). Close the lid of the pan and steam cook for 20-25 minutes on lowest flame. Mine was done at 25 minutes, open the lid and check if done (I baked in two batches). The sides look slightly browned and the biscuits flatten too. 

• Leave the cookies in the cookie tray just like that (in the pan itself) for another 7-8 mins after you switch off the flame without the lid as vapors may dribble down the lid if you leave with lid on. Once the cooking is done, don't try to touch the biscuit immediately when its hot as the cookie will be very soft and will crush. After 7-8 minutes of residual cooking, cool the cookie / biscuits on a wire rack once slightly warm. 

(the under side of the cookie slightly browned )

OR

• If you plan to bake, then bake at 320 degrees F or 160 degrees C for 15-20 minutes. 

NOTES

* The cardamom powder can be replaced with vanilla. But I feel cardamom powder brings out the bakery flavors.

* Refrigeration is important before baking.
* If you use salted butter, omit the added salt in flour.
* You can separately powder each of the roasted chana dal, granulated sugar and cardamom powder. It was esaier this way so went and did that.
* Don't add confectioner's sugar as it has corn starch in it and may not give you the needed results. Also if you use powdered sugar, the measures would be 3/4 cup. As I powdered granulated sugar, I used 1/2 cup which will yield 3/4 cup powdered sugar.

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* Christmas Wreath Cookies
* Suji Cookies
* Nutella Palmiers
* Pinwheel Dates Cookie
* Eggless Fancy Lemon Cookies
* French Macarons
* Cashew Cookies
* Eggless Nankhatai