Osmania biscuit

Salty as well as sweet, which is what the Nizam asked for.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg, dairy (butter), dairy (milk).

Ingredients

250 g plain flour
60 g custard powder
150 g butter, soft
100 g caster sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
40 g milk powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
2 tablespoons milk

Method

SALTY AS WELL AS SWEET, WHICH IS WHAT THE NIZAM ASKED FOR. Its article gives the brief rather than a recipe: the biscuits trace to the royal kitchens of the last Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Osman Ali Khan, WHO SOUGHT A SNACK WITH A PERFECT BLEND OF SWEETNESS AND SALTINESS. That is the whole design and it is why a teaspoon and a half of salt is in a biscuit with only a hundred grams of sugar. Make it sweeter and it is a shortbread; make it saltier and it is a cracker.
AND THE ARTICLE NAMES WHERE THE METHOD CAME FROM. Their development WAS SIGNIFICANTLY INFLUENCED BY TURKISH AND PERSIAN BAKING CUSTOMS, CONTRIBUTING TO THEIR DISTINCTIVE FLAVOR PROFILE AND TEXTURE.
SO THE PROPORTIONS BELOW ARE MINE AND THE BALANCE IS THEIRS. The article gives no ingredient list at all. What it fixes is that the thing must taste of both at once, and the custard powder and milk powder are how this version gets the short, sandy crumb a tea biscuit wants.
BEAT THE BUTTER, SUGAR AND SALT TOGETHER PROPERLY. Five minutes until pale. The salt has to dissolve into the fat or you get salty patches rather than a salty biscuit.
SIFT THE DRY THINGS IN AND BRING IT TOGETHER WITHOUT KNEADING. Flour, custard powder, milk powder, baking powder and cardamom. Two spoons of milk only if it will not hold.
CHILL THE DOUGH HALF AN HOUR, THEN ROLL IT SIX MILLIMETRES THICK. Thicker than an English biscuit. Cut rounds about six centimetres across.
BAKE AT 170C FOR SIXTEEN TO EIGHTEEN MINUTES, PALE. They should be barely coloured at the edge and still soft in the middle when they come out.
COOL THEM ON THE TRAY AND EAT THEM WITH IRANI CHAI. They firm as they cool. Its article calls them a tea biscuit of Hyderabadi cooking and that is exactly the job: they are not sweet enough to eat alone and they are perfect dunked.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under India · All recipes