Iyengar bakery style savory cookies

Ask any Bangalorean who is abroad what they miss most about Bangalore and I am sure they the answer would be Khara biscuit or the savory cookies from the Iyengar bakeries. We Bangaloreans have a strange obsession towards the Iyengar bakeries and the goodies they bake. We seem to take the flavours and the aromas of the bakery to any corner of the earth that we go. One such goody that is a specialty of Iyengar Bakery is the Khara biscuit or the savory cookies. 

These cookies are spiced with chillies, ginger, coriander and sometimes mint and is a little flaky and crumbly in texture. Something like melting moments. Even though I had tried baking these cookies a couple of times, I always seemed to go wrong with the texture. I kept wondering about the secret ingredient that brought out the texture in the cookies. The idea of using corn starch hit me at 2Am 3 days back. I guess insomnia has it's own advantages. I just substituted 2tbsp of all purpose flour with corn starch and voila. I got the perfect texture. So go ahead and try the recipe. I am sure you will get as addicted to the cookies as I am.

Savory cookie recipe

Preparation time: 40min

Baking time: 2omin+ cooling time

Makes- 30 cookies

Ingredients:

All purpose flour or maida- 1cup+6tbsp

Corn starch or corn flour- 2tbsp

Baking powder- 1tsp

salt-3/4th tsp

Sugar- 1 tsp

Thick curds- 1-2tsp

Butter- 1/2cup, softened at room temperature

Ginger- 1/2" piece

Curry leaves- 1sprig

Coriander leaves- 1tsp, chopped

Green chillies- 1-2, chopped

Asafotida- A pinch

Method:

• Make a paste of the ginger, coriander leaves, curry leaves and the green chillies and keep aside
• Sift the flour, corn flour and the baking powder and mix the asafotida, salt and sugar
• Add the butter and the ground paste and mix again
• Add 1tsp of curds at a time mix to form a stiff dough.
• Allow the dough to rest for 30 min
• Divide the dough into 2-3 equal portions and roll out one portion into a disc of 1/4" thickness.
• Using a cookie cutter, cut the dough into desired shape and arrange them on a greased baking sheet.
• Repeat the procedure till all the dough is used up
• Prick the top of the dough with a fork and bake in a preheated oven at 200C for 15-20 min or until the under sides are brown.
• Cool completely and store in air tight container.

P.S. Please note that the combination of ginger, green chillies, coriander and curry leaves should amount to 1tbsp.