Tea Kadai Butter Biscuit/ Chai Wala Butter Biscoot

College & School days are one of the best in one's life. The carefree life, the enjoyment, hour long chats and little little fights. They are never to be missed and always to be cherished. A lot of things I have enjoyed while I was studying, of which one most important was the Tea Kadai's that we friends used to venture to. 

We especially loved the butter biscuits that the tea shops sold. They were crisp and one bite.... they just melt in your mouth!!! Wow, just to enjoy those we use to venture to our tea shops near our college. 

So after buying my OTG, I'm living my passion for baking and this is one of those recipes that I chanced upon. 

These biscuits brought back those warm memories of my lovely carefree days!!! They were crunchy, melt in the mouth. With a mild hint of salt and not too overtly sweet but so addictive!!

While I was baking them the entire house was filled with the aroma of Vanilla. The minute my oven beeped I ran over to look at the beauties. Let them cool fast and took one bite!! Yup transported back to my lovely lovely days!!

Now let's move on to the recipe...

Recipe Adaptation: www.kannammacooks.com

What would you need:

1.     Butter - 1/2 cup (110 grams)

2.     Sugar (Fine) - 1/2 cup (65 grams)

3.     Maida - 1 cup (165 grams)

4.     Salt - 1/8 tsp

5.     Vanilla Extract - 1/2 tsp

How to go about it:

• Bring all the ingredients to room temperature. If your sugar granules are a little big, then pulse them in the mixer for a minute or two and make it into fine granules. This way they are easy to mix with the butter.
• Sift the flour and salt and keep aside.
• First, add the butter and sugar to a bowl and beat them until pale and fluffy. 

         

• Slowly add the sifted flour & salt to the beaten butter & sugar mixture and start bringing the dough together. At first you might feel the dough is a bit dry. Do not panic, the butter will absorb all of the maida and will become pliable.

            

• Spread a cling foil on your working surface. Over the cling foil, add the mixed dough and make a log shape like shown below. Wrap the dough little firmly and refrigerate for an hour or overnight.

          

• Meanwhile, pre heat your oven to 200°C for 10 minutes. Grease the baking tray with butter and dust with flour. You might also spread a parchment paper or a silicon sheet.
• Now, take the refrigerated dough and cut biscuit of thickness ½ inches.

            

• Arrange the cut biscuits on the tray with at least 2 inches gap between them; the biscuits expand, hence the gap.
• Bake them at 180°C for 20 – 25 minutes. Half way through the process, invert the sides of the baking tray. That is the side which is inside would now be facing the oven door vice versa. If you are using a convection microwave you can skip this step.
• Please note that the biscuits turn from brown to black very fast, hence start monitoring them form the 18^th minute of baking.
• Once done, remove them and cool them completely on a wire rack and store them in an airtight container.

Points to note:

•  While mixing the beaten sugar butter mixture with maida:

o   If you feel the dough is a little dry, add very little milk to loosen up.

o   If you feel the dough is loose, add very little maida to tighten a bit.

• Please use fine sugar granules, as they are much easier to beat with butter and mix fast with the butter.
• Either use cup measurements or gram measurements. Please do not mix both as there might be slight variations.
• If you are using a convection oven, you can bake them at 200°C instead of 180. Since I use an OTG I have done it at 180°C

  Njoy with your loved ones...

Luv..

Champa