Recipe- Celebrate Tea Time With Ajwain Cookies

Whole Wheat cookies flavored with ajwain (carom seeds).

These sweet and salty crispy cookies pair so well with a cup of chai. These are also eggless! I find baking cookies very therapeutic. It’s one of those things which calms me down when I am anxious.

Sure, I do love to bake the cakes, tarts, bread etc. too but cookies are much more simpler, don’t require a ton of effort and so they are my go to thing when I want to bake something.

The other day after a long day of recipe testing, shooting, cleaning, I was exhausted.

And then I baked these Ajwain Cookies because clearly only baking can make me feel better after a long day at work.

These are salty cookies with just a touch of sweetness and made with whole wheat flour. I used regular atta (durum wheat flour) which we use in Indian households to make everyday roti for these cookies.

Ingredients

1.5 cups atta (whole wheat flour) 195 grams
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons ajwain carom seeds
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup +1 tablespoon powdered sugar 45 grams
1/2 cup salted butter 1 stick (113 grams), at room temperature
1.5 tablespoons milk 22 ml, or as needed

Method

* Pre-heat oven to 350 F degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

* To a large mixing bowl, add atta, salt, ajwain and baking powder. Then add the powdered sugar and mix until the sugar is well combined.

* Add in the butter. I have used room temperature butter here which I cut into small pieces and then added to the bowl.

* Using your finger (or you can also use a fork) mix the butter with the flour until it's well combined. You can also use a stand mixer here. Once combined, the mixture will resemble crumbs.

* Add milk to bring the dough together. Start with 1 tablespoon of milk and add as needed to bring the dough together. Mix to form a dough.

* Cover with dough with a cling and let it rest for 20 minutes. After it has rested, remove the cling and place the dough on a surface lightly dusted with wheat flour.

* Use a rolling pin to roll the dough into 1/4 inch thickness. The dough will break as you roll it, so try to roll slowly and apply equal pressure as you roll.

* Then cut the rolled dough into round shapes. I used a cookie cutter and cut circles of around 2 inches diameter.

* Transfer cut cookies to a baking sheet. Gather the remaining dough and roll again to cut more cookies. I got a total of 24 cookies.

* Place cookies on the prepared baking sheet lined with parchment paper, with little space between each cookie. Sprinkle more ajwain on top and then brush the top with milk (optional).

* Bake the cookies at 350 F degrees for 18 to 20 minutes until crisp. Cool to room temperature and then store the ajwain cookies in an air tight container.