This is an easy one bowl cookie recipe which needs few pantry ingredients. I am also including a quick recipe of homemade eggless custard powder in this post. In India, cookies are called as “biscuits” hence the name. These eggless fruit biscuits are called so because they are sold at the famous “Karachi Bakery” in Hyderabad, India.These biscuits are super popular tea time cookies - nutty, sweet, crumbly and scented with either pineapple, rose or cardamom. Karachi Bakery is famous for its delicious baked goods made from unique family recipes of the owner. Their goodies are available online worldwide and in addition to Karachi fruit biscuits, they have a delicious line up of goodies like Osmania biscuits, cashew biscuits, sweet bread & plum cakes and jeera biscuits. Karachi Biscuits are also a popular gift during Diwali. You can make them for Christmas, for kid birthday parties or for bake sales. Since these are eggless, they are perfect to serve to pure vegetarians or guests with egg allergies.
Ingredients
Here are the ingredients you will need to make these biscuits. You need very basic ingredients like flour, butter, sugar and milk.
Tutti Frutti- Indian tutti frutti is candied papaya bits. The bits are dyed using food color and flavored with paan or rose. Tutti fruit is added as a topping on ice cream, custard, milk shakes, falooda etc. Packaged tutti fruit is easily available online and in indian stores. If you are not fond of it, you can make your fruit mix as well by chopping up dried fruits like dates, apricots, cherries, cranberries, dehydrated pineapple or papaya.
How to Make Homemade Custard Powder
Custard powder is available in many flavors in most indian stores. However, sometimes its not possible to find just the vanilla flavored one. In case, you want to make your own to use in this recipe, in a bowl just mix together
¼ cup powdered sugar2 tablespoon each of milk powder and cornstarch(corn flour in india)⅛ teaspoon Yellow color powder⅛ teaspoon Vanilla powder. If vanilla powder is not available, its okay to add a teaspoon to the wet ingredients while making the biscuits dough.
How To Make Karachi Biscuits (Step By Step)
This is a one bowl cookie recipe. You need to make a soft dough by combining together all the ingredients. You don’t need any mixers or fancy equipment. Indian baking goods keep it simple and that is one of my favorite thing about them. This recipe is perfect for beginner bakers because it is ridiculously simple to make. Place the biscuit dough on a cling film or wax paper and shape it into a log. You can make a long cylinder as well. Refrigerate for 2 hours. Note :- Read the storage section on how to freeze and use the dough. Note :- You can use pineapple essence or green cardamom powder for flavoring as well. Note:- Custard powder make these cookies tender and crumbly. It also gives these cookies a beautiful flavor & aroma that we usually associated with indian bakery goods. Tip :- Feel the dough with hands once its mixed before adding extra milk. Only if the dough feels tight and dry,add milk. Using a sharp knife cut into thickish biscuits. Place them a bit apart on a parchment lined baking sheet. You can bake in batches. Bake in a 350F/180C oven for 11 to 15 minutes until the bottoms are browned and the biscuits look a bit brown on edges. Cool on a rack before serving or storing.
Storing Karachi Biscuits
Storing The Biscuits :- Store cooled karachi biscuits in an air tight container for up to 2 weeks. Take out with dry hands. Storing The Dough- This is a perfect make ahead dough. Make the dough, shape it into logs and freeze for a month. Thaw the dough overnight in the fridge. Next day slice and bake the biscuits. Dont bake frozen dough. If the dough feels sticky after thawing, dry it with a paper towel and make sure is nicely chilled.
My Tips
Make sure that butter is softened but not melting. Milk should be at room temperature when you add to creamed butter & sugar. In many countries, powdered sugar is called as confectioners sugar or castor sugar. You can add some edible dried petals to these biscuits as well.
