Karachi Bakery Style Tutti Frutti Biscuits

When I was a little girl, there used to be a bakery on the road where we lives, they sold world's best biscuits ever. I never bothered about how clean they are, how hygienic their method was but all I always focused was on the tasty treats they sold.

One of my favorite was tutti-frutti biscuit. candied fruits with dry nuts mixed with flour and baked to the perfection. Still droll by thinking of them. The shopkeeper, who I called Uncle, always told me these are one of best from their shop and they were called "Karachi Bakery Fruit Biscuits".

Who bothers, I thought always, I was interested in buying them enjoying them with a glass of milk or with some tea (Whenever I can have it).  Few days back I saw a fellow foodie posting her method of making those biscuits. It took me to my childhood days and I decided to try my hand on my childhood favorite biscuit.

Tried them 2-3 times but not best attempts and once I just threw them in bin. Felt frustrated and disappointed. But today for my daughter's request for cookies, I thought to make them again. Super excited they came out perfect just perfect. I still can do batter with them , so I'm gonna try them again. Next time i'll try to perfect them with wholewheat flour.

The perfect texture should be crunchy outside and once bitten soft crumbles inside. The fruits should come into your mouth with each bite of this biscuit. So lets go through the recipe and get you all going in the Kitchen and trying this biscuit recipe.

I 'm sure these will be a hit in your house, kids as well as adults will love them. Don't forget to comment below :) Until next time.......Happy Cooking Friends, Saumya

Ingredients:

APF/Plain Flour             - 1- 1/2 cup
Butter                             - 1/2 cup (Softened not melted on room temperature)
Powdered Sugar             - 1/3 cup
Tutti Frutti                     - 1/2 cup
Cardamom Powder        - 1/2 tspoon
Vanilla extract               - 1/2 tspoon
Yellow Color                 - 1/2 tspoon or 2 drops

Method:

First thing first in this recipe, we need softened butter, in which we can poke our finger but it should not be melted and runny.
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

Add the cardamom powder, tutti frutti, and vanilla extract, Mix again.
Slowly add the flour in 4 parts.

Now start to mix the flour and butter mixture together. Do not knead just bring it together.
Shape the dough into a 2 inch thick in height like a square log shape. Wrap it into cling film and keep it in a long square box like foil box or cling film box.
Keep the dough in the fridge for at-least 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 180c and line baking tray with silicon baking mat/parchment paper/nonstick paper.
Take the dough log out of the fridge and cut 1/2 inch thick squares. If the shapes goes wrong in cutting, pat them with hand to make them square.

Place the cookies on the tray with 2 inch space in between each one, as they expand while baking.

Bake the cookies for 15 minutes or until the sides are starting to turn light golden. Do not brown them.
Cookies will come out with sides hard and center soft, which will get hard while cooling. so do not bake them again thinking they are uncooked.

Let them cool on tray for 5 minutes and then transfer them to cooling rack to cool completely.

Once cooled completely serve them with Milk, Coffee, Tea or Juice.
These cookies are good to store in an airtight container for 2 weeks.
My kids adored these cute colorful cookies, I'm sure yours will love them too.

White Sandwich Bread Loaf

Ingredients:

All Purpose Flour/Maida/ Bread Flour		- 2 cups
Milk Powder		- 2 tblspoon
Milk+Water		- 1-1/2 cup ( 50:50 )
Honey		- 1 tblspoon
Yeast		- 1-1/2 tspoon
Salt		- 1 tspoon
Olive Oil		- 2 tblspoon

Method:

Take 1/4 cup lukewarm water, add honey  and the instant yeast, mix and set aside to rise.

In a deep mixing bowl. mix the flour, milk powder and salt.

In another bowl mix yeast, milk and oil.

Now start adding the flour mix, a cup at a time, mixing well with a silicon/plastic scraper or hand. 

At first the dough will be very wet.

Tip the sticky dough to a lightly floured work surface, knead gently for 8-10 minutes  with lifting, stretching and pulling, dusting with little flour.

With 8-10 minutes kneading it will start to form sticky but smooth dough.

Now put the dough in a lightly greased bowl. Oil the dough as well.

Cover the bowl with wet cloth or plastic wrap and let it rise at room temperature (preferably warm place) until it’s doubled in size, 1 to 2 hours.

After it doubles up, gently punch to deflate the dough. 

To shape the bread loaf, tip the dough on surface and just roll/spread into a rectangular shape with a rolling pin. 

Roll up tightly into a log. Place the bread dough in lightly greased loaf pan with the seam side down.

Cover again with a wet cloth, and let the dough rise again for 45 to 60 minutes (preferably warm place), till it has doubled.

Preheat the oven at 200 C. Just before baking, Make some slits on the loaf and brush the loaf with little milk or melted butter.

Keep an iron utensil with some water in the lowest shelf. The steam from water will help with the soft crusty layer over the bread.

Bake in a preheated oven at 200c, for 20-25 minutes for the bread loaf. Remove the bread from the oven, and turn it out onto a cooling rack.

Once completely cooled, wrap in plastic, and store at room temperature. Slice the loaf only when its cooled down completely.

Methi Mathri

Ingredients:

Plain Flour/Maida          - 1 cup
Semolina/Sooji               - 1/2 cup
Vegetable Oil                 - 2 tblspoon for moyen
Kasuri Methi                  - 2 tblspoon
Black Pepper Powder     - 1/4 tsp
Ajwain/Carom Seeds      - 1 tspoon
Salt to taste                      - to taste
Oil                                    - enough for deep frying

Method:

In a deep bowl, tip maida, sooji, salt, black pepper powder, ajwain, kasuri methi and 2 tblspoon oil.
Check the moyen in the flour by making fist (Mutthi) with flour if it holds the shape, moyen is right else add 1 more tblspoon in the flour.
With the help of water start to knead it and make it a firm but smooth dough.
Now roll out the dough into a big round sheet.

keep the thickness of the sheet to 1/2 inch.
Now prick the whole sheet with a fork making fork marks all over the rolled sheet.
Now cut out the desired shape with the cooking cutters or cut the sheet with a knife in small diamond shape or square shapes. Please refer the pictures for the shapes.

Heat the enough oil in a Kadahi to fry the Mathris. Put mathris in the oil , make sure not to over crowd the karahi, give mathris some space to puff up.

Checkout the pictures to see the size difference before and after frying Mathris.

Once all the mathris are fried, cool them down before storing in an air-tight container.
We serve Mathris with different condiments at tea-time but they can be enjoyed any time with anything.

Ladi Pav

Ingredients:

Plain Flour / Maida           -2 Cups
Milk                                  -1 cup warm
Vegetable Oil                   -2 tblspoon
Dry Active Yeast             -1 tspoon
Sugar                               -1 tspoon
Salt                                  -1/2 tspoon
Water                              -1/2 cup


Method:

Mix Maida, yeast, sugar, salt and oil in a deep mixing bowl, mix it well.









Now add milk little by little not all at once, knead it to dough.

The dough will be very sticky, keep on kneading for 8-10 minutes and the sticky dough will turn into smooth dough. We knead it for 10 minutes just to activate the gluten in it.

Now cover it with cling film and keep it in a warm spot to rest untill double. it can take from 1 to 1-1/2 hours.

Once the dough has risen, punch it down and knead it again.

Now take a baking tray and grease with some butter and dust it with some flour so that your Pav doesn't stick to it.

Now cut the similar size balls or pieces from the dough and roll them to form a small ball.

Keep these dough balls on the baking tray within a distance of 1/2 inch.

Once all the balls are made and placed on the baking tray, cover it again with cling film and keep it in a warm spot to rest for at least 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes the balls will rise double to their size.

Preheat the oven to 180c.
Now put the baking tray on to middle rack of your oven and bake the rolls for 20 minutes or until the top turns golden.
Your Pav Rolls are ready to serve with Bhaji or vada.