Kesar Pista Elaichi Biscuits – Eggless

Kitchen Equipments Required

Chopping board, knife, mortal – pestel, 2 baking trays, parchment paper or butter paper, electric egg beater, a big mixing bowl, a medium mixing bowl, a small microwave safe bowl, flour sifter (atta chhalni), heavy duty plastic wrap.

Ingredients

Maida / Refined Flour – 1 cup

Butter, unsalted – 1/2 cup, 1 stick at room temperature

Salt – 1 fat pinch

Sugar, fine – 1/3 cup + 1 tbsp

Kesar / Saffron – 1 fat pinch

Milk – 1&1/2 tbsp

Elaichi / Cardamom – 6 pods

Pista / Pistachio, usalted – 2 tbsp

Method

Preparing the Ingredients 

1. Peel the cardamom pods and discard the peels. Crush the cardamom seeds into fine powder in the mortar-pestal. Set aside
2. Heat 1&1/2 tbsp milk in microwave safe bowl for 15 seconds and soak saffron in it. Set aside.
3. Chop the peeled unsalted pistachios into fine and thin slices. Set aside.

Preparing the Cookie / Biscuit Dough

1. Take the medium bowl and sift the flour and salt in it. Set aside.
2. Take the big bowl. Add the soft butter and sugar to the bowl. Whisk and Beat the sugar and butter together for about 3 minutes till light and creamy, with electric egg beater.
3. Add saffron milk and cardamom powder to the mixing bowl. Mix well.
4. Now add flour and chopped pistachios to the butter mixture. Slowly and gently incorporate the butter sugar mix with flour and pistachio. Combine together to make a cookie dough. We do not knead this dough. Just gather together in the bowl.
5. Take a large piece of heavy duty plastic wrap. Empty the dough with crumbs on the plastic wrap. Make a log of even sides. Start wrapping the dough in the plastic wrap while spreading it long and shaping evenly. You may shape it in a square-shape log or circular-shape log. Wrap it tightly from all the sides.
6. Refrigerate the cookie dough log for about 3 hrs. You may refrigerate it overnight also.

Baking the Cookies

1. Take the cookie-dough log out. Let it rest at the room temperature for about 10-12 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, preheat the oven at 350*F / 180*C. Line the 2 baking sheets with parchment or butter paper.
3. Mark 1/2 inch thick marks on the cookie log. It would yield about 16-20 cookies. Cut out the cookies and place them on the cookie sheets 2 inches apart from each other.
4. Bake these cookies for about 10-12 minutes till the sides of the cookie turn pinkish brown.
5. Take them out. Cool at the room temperature over the cooling wires. They will firm up in texture, after cooling.
6. Store in air tight container.

Notes 

1. I made thinner cookies about 1/4 inch thick. You may decide the thickness to your desire.
2. You may shape them as desired. Instead of making a log, you may make a disc out of the cookie dough and refrigerate the disc instead of log.