Blogging Marathon #75
Day – 2
Name of the Bake – Benne Biscuit
State / Country – Karnataka, India
When the letter B came up, I had a Brazilian Corn Flour Cookie – Biscoitos de Maizena ready in the bookmarks. I confidently made the cookies and within minutes of putting them in the oven, the dough melted, became a mess, and looked like I had spread ladle full of batter! Finally,it spread fully on the baking sheet and I took it out of the oven.There was definitely something wrong but I could not guess the reason.
I checked and rechecked the measurement and everything looked fine! So I discarded the mess and started searching for another cookie recipe.
I found Benne wafers from South Carolina [where Benne refers to sesame seeds],Bolhinos de coco from Goa / Portugal specialty,Biscoitos de Polvilho -a brazilian cookie made with cassava starch .There were quite a few more to add to this list. Yet nothing seemed simple.
Suddenly, I remembered the bakery style butter biscuits and these Benne biscuits seemed doable at last moments notice.
Benne is butter in kannada. But somehow we are using ghee in this recipe.Maybe there is a version with butter!
I used:
Adapted from Chitras Foodbook
All purpose flour – 1/2 cup
Homemade ghee– 4 tablespoons
Powdered sugar- 1/4 cup
Baking powder- 1/4 teaspoon
Step by step method to make Benne Biscuit:
Take the flour, sugar and baking powder in a bowl. Add ghee and gently mix in to get a non sticky dough.
Pinch out even sized balls and flatten them a bit. Place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.Bake in a pre heated oven at 170 degrees for 8-10 minutes / till the bottom turns light brown.Do not over bake these cookies.
Note:
- If the dough is too crumbly, add a few drops of ghee
- Smoothen cracks on the cookies with your fingertips before putting them into the oven.
- The cookies will be very soft as soon as they are out of the oven. So leave them in the tray for 10 minutes and then transfer them to a cooling rack.
- Use ghee which has no sediments, else the color of the cookies will change.
- Do not flatten the cookies too much.These cookies must be small and plump!
- The ghee should be at room temperature.Frozen / refrigerated ghee/ hot ghee will not work out for this recipe.
- You can use home made / store bought ghee.
The melt in the mouth type butter cookies that are famous in the bakeries / Tea shops in Karnataka.
- 1/2 cup All purpose flour
- 4 tablespoons Ghee
- 1/4 cup Powdered sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon Baking powder
-
Take the flour, sugar and baking powder in a bowl. Add ghee and gently mix in to get a non sticky dough.
-
Pinch out even sized balls and flatten them a bit. Place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.
-
Bake in a pre heated oven at 170 degrees for 8-10 minutes / till the bottom turns light brown.Do not over bake these cookies.
Note:
If the dough is too crumbly, add a few drops of ghee
Smoothen cracks on the cookies with your fingertips before putting them into the oven.
The cookies will be very soft as soon as they are out of the oven. So leave them in the tray for 10 minutes and then transfer them to a cooling rack.
Use ghee which has no sediments, else the color of the cookies will change.
Do not flatten the cookies too much.These cookies must be small and plump!
The ghee should be at room temperature.Frozen / refrigerated ghee/ hot ghee will not work out for this recipe.
You can use home made / store bought ghee.
Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 75
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So sorry about the mishap with the recipe. Sometimes it happens to the best of us and I find that it always happens when we are desperate or in a hurry. Between, this recipe sounds wonderful and I love how easy it is to make.
Those cookies look like they are going to melt in the mouth.. Perfect pick for letter B.
Love these cookies, PJ. Smart choice of the word ‘Benne’ 🙂
My mom makes these the same way and has been making for the past 30 years. I also make the same way except that I add some powdered nuts to further add flavor.
These biscuits look melt in the mouth kinds, the texture is amazing. Do they taste something like those Indian home biscuits…..the ghee makes me think so. You should have made all your bakes and sent me one of each.:))
Your cookie mishap sounds like my first few cookie adventures when everything went wrong and I was clueless. I made up names of cookies depending on the result 😉
I thought we only had benne dosai in Karnataka…benne biscuits looks so yummm. I always feel ghee is so underrated as compared to butter. I love its taste and fragrance….bookmarked this!
I HAD to visit the space Owing to the name :)) brought back memories of Bangalore bakeries ! Yummmm
One of my fav cookies when i was in bangalore.. always used to relish that along with Tea!! Your pics tempt me again!!
I love these ghee biscuits and yes there is a version with butter as well..I love the one with dalda as well, that tastes much like the bakery one. Off all the three, I think the ghee one makes it more crispy as the fat gets baked twice!..very nice choice..
such a simple recipe , never knew this cookie…adding to my bookmarks
See mishaps always leads to new inventions… love you take on the word benne. This looks awesome
Mishaps in baking might have happened each and everyone na, the best part is you came up with a beautiful biscuits, i simply love this butter cookies, just my all time favourite.
PJ, the cookies look just perfect, melt in mouth, attractive as is its name ‘Benne’. I can very well imagine your situation as I have gone through this situation number of times. Kudos to you for trying another cookie👏👏
The Indian version of butter cookies looks absoultely delicious. They came out really nice.
ah mishaps happen all the time in my kitchen. Anyway these biscuits must have been melt in the mouth kind like the benne. Looks yumm