Crunchy Pistachio Tea Biscuits

My grandfather loves pistachios and always complains about the fact that I don’t bake for him. You see, I am not a proficient eggless baker and the grandfather is a pure vegetarian. As a baker, my joy comes from baking something special for the ones I love. Rachel Allen came to the rescue. I modified her basic cookie recipe and came up with these crispy, nutty biscuits. Right in time for tea… They were dunked in chai; they were munched on just like that. Grandpop asked for his personal jar of cookies. The baker est tres happy!

Ingredients:

¼ cup shelled pistachios (unsalted)

225g softened margarine (I use butter, but margarine makes these biscuits crunchier)

125g castor sugar

300g flour

1tsp baking powder (make sure it’s a leveled spoon not heaped)

1tsp cardamom powder

1tsp nutmeg powder

A pinch of salt

Shelled pistachios and khus khus to decorate the cookies

Method:

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees centigrade. Coarsely grind the pistachios. You could chop them fine, but when ground, the pistachios make the dough a lovely light green and you don’t need to use artificial food flavoring. Cream margarine and sugar together in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the coarsely ground pistachios, cardamom and nutmeg. Sift the flour, salt and baking powder together and fold it into the pistachio mixture. I find it most convenient to knead the dough with my bare hands. It’s fun to see all the ingredients come together to make a pretty neat greenish dough. The dough shouldn’t be too dry or too moist. It should be moist enough to feel sticky but it shouldn’t stick to your palm when you shape it. You could roll out the dough between two sheets of cling film, but me being a lazy bum, I just roll the dough between my palms and then lightly press it into a disk.

You don’t need to grease the cookie tray, because there’s enough margarine in the dough to keep the cookies from sticking to the tray. If you’re still worried, line the cookie tray with butter paper. Shape each cookie and lightly dip the top in a small dish of khus khus. Place the cookies, khus khus side up, on the tray. Press a pistachio into the center of each biscuit. Bake for 12-15 minutes. You know the cookies are done when the khus khus turns golden brown. Allow the cookies to cool on the cookie tray for about 10 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack. The cookies are ready to eat in the time you’d take to make yourself a cup of tea. Enjoy!

P.S: The cookies last for about 4-5 days if you store them in an airtight container. I wouldn’t put an ‘eat by’ date on them. They will be polished off sooner than you think. 

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