Fruit Biscuits

I first tasted karachi bakery biscuits during my 2 year stay in mumbai. I had a lovely  hostel roommate , from Hyderabad, who faithfully showed up with a box of these crazy good biscuits each time she returned from her hometown. I remember rationing them to eat, so they would last for the week Got to say, that was one of the tough challenges of my life back then. Seeing a box of these anywhere these days brings a smile on my face, and then knowing I can have a box of them all to myself, makes me feel like I won the lottery. It was only natural these biscuits made it my food bucket list.

So about that food bucket list of 2016 , there are some other things I've successfully marked off the list and haven't made the time to update here. I promise to get on to the job soon.  I'm calling them fruit biscuits, because they taste like karachi bakery biscuits but not like karachi bakery biscuits. Yeah, I know. These taste nice and fruity, are addictive and are almost there. The only way I  thought they were different from the bakery biscuits , were that they weren't as flaky. I'm contemplating increasing the ratio of butter the next time I try making these.  That being said, these taste great and are super easy to make, and with a cake beater in your hand, take hardly any time to make. I would make them over and over again, without a thought, Oh wait, I've already been doing that.

So here goes. 

Fruit Biscuits(Karachi Bakery Biscuits)

Ingredients :

113 gms butter/1 stick of butter/ 1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup sugar + 2 tbsp powdered sugar

1/2 tsp pineapple essence

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1/2 tsp pista essence

3 tbsp milk

1.5 cups flour

4 tbsp custard powder. I used this one

1/2 tutti fruitty

1. Start with beating the butter and sugar. Make sure the butter is at room temperature. 

2. Toss in the pineapple, pista and vanilla essence, followed by the milk. Beat to mix.

3. In goes the flour and the custard powder. The mixture will make little clumps but may not come together yet and that's ok.

4. Lastly, add the tutti fruity and mix well , using a wooden spoon if you like, in place of the beater. 

5. Divide the dough into roughly 2 equal parts. 

6. Take one portion and bring it together using your hands, and roll into a log. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate. Repeat with the other portion. 

7. Let the dough chill in the fridge for atleast a couple of hours. 

8. When you're ready to bake the biscuits, pre heat the oven to 170 C. Take out the dough and cut into little rounds of equal thickness. Place on a baking tray and bake for about 18-20 mins. 

9. The biscuits will crisp up as they cool down. Store in an airtight container.