There’s no point to the title of this post other than the fact that it is one of my cellphone ring tones and I have it stuck in my head 24/7. Now you do too. Also, I spent a good part of summer (winter) 2009 learning the movie dance in my unheated office in Argentina to keep me warm. It has sentimental value.
Okay maybe the title of the post does have a bit of a point, as it comes from India and so does my new favorite cookie. Have you ever had the urge to dunk a cookie into your tea or coffee? Have you ever wished you had the perfect cookie to do so? Well, I am here to introduce you to atta biscuits.
These little lumps of heaven and cardamom were introduced to me after a trip to a local Indian grocery store with Rahul. After dunking them in my tea and seeing how the texture got perfectly soggy and wasn’t overly sweet, I did more research. Turns out these babies are 100% whole wheat and don’t have butter (gasp!) so they actually aren’t a bad cookie choice. They aren’t super sweet and the cardamom adds a type of savory sweetness (does that even make sense?) that is out of this world.
Mine don’t look too pretty, but I promise you they’re delicious and taste pretty close to what came from the Indian grocery store.
Atta Biscuits (makes 9 cookies)
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup powdered sugar
3/4 tsp cardamom powder
~2 T cold milk
In a small bowl, sift together the flour and the baking powder. Set aside. In a mixing bowl, beat together the powdered sugar and vegetable oil until smooth. Then, slowly beat in the cardamom until fully incorporated with the oil and sugar mixture. Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture and knead by hand until the dough forms a lumpy, loose texture. Add in milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the dough sticks to itself loosely — you should be able to roll or press the dough in your palm to form a shape that doesn’t fall apart at this point. Form into whatever shape you want (I used a rounded rectangle as my shape) and place on a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake at 350* for 10-12 minutes and remove to a cooling rack. Allow to cool completely, about 1 hour, before tasting.
Yum! I’m definitely making these soon.
Let me know what you think of them!