Shortbread cookies

Melt in the mouth salt biscuits

Shortbread cookies have been a family favorite. There is a bakery called ‘ Balaji Bakery ‘ in my hometown of Coimbatore in India. The bakery located at Town Hall is very small compared to the modern standards but it is always crowded owing to the taste of the products sold here.

The melt-in-the-mouth shortbread cookies or salt biscuits sold here were a regular in our house. After marriage, everyone at my in-laws’ place too fell in love with these.

Even now though far away, the taste of those biscuits still lingers. So I have tried to recreate them with the usual shortbread cookie recipe.

I have used butter, though they use vegetable oil in the bakery, as mentioned in their list of ingredients. That accounts for the small difference in texture, but otherwise, the taste is exactly like those biscuits.

The recipe itself is very simple and easy. It has no leavening agents like baking powder or baking soda, yet rises up beautifully and tastes divine. You definitely cannot stop with one 🙂 .

Let’s get to the recipe.

Salty short bread cookies
These cookies melt in the mouth and are a crowd puller
Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time20 minutes
Resting time30 minutes
Total Time35 minutes
Course: Snack
Cuisine: English, Scottish
Keyword: Balaji bakery salt biscuit, How to make salt biscuits, Melt in the mouth salt biscuits
Servings: 30 biscuits
Author: Hema Magesh
Ingredients
  • 1.5 cups All Purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup corn flour
  • 1 cup butter
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp vanilla essence/ sugar
Instructions
  • Sift together the flours and salt.
  • Powder the sugar and cream it with butter till fluffy.
  • Add the flour to it. Mix in the vanilla sugar or vanilla essence. Incorporate everything together by mixing lightly. Do not knead. 
  • Refrigerate for half an hour
  • After half an hour , make even sized roundels and place it apart from each other on a baking tray.
  • Preheat the oven at 180°C for 10 minutes.
  • Bake the cookies for about 10 - 12 minutes in the middle rack at  180°C .
  • Transfer to cooling rack , once the corners turn golden brown.
  • Store in air tight containers once cooled.

Hema’s P.S

  • I replaced around 2 tbsp of butter with coconut oil, for that mild crisp.
  • Usually, flour is added to the butter mixture. But I have added the butter mix to the flour as the vessel I used for beating was small.
  • After making roundels, you can make any design on the cookies. I prefer to prick with a fork as it looks similar to those bakery biscuits.
  • Do not keep it waiting for a long time after shaping as the butter will start softening, and the cookies will lose shape.
  • The cookies have a tendency to burn if not taken out on time, so do not leave them unattended.
  • Remove them as soon as you see the corners are golden. You can test the underside also for golden color. They may seem soft while taking out but harden on cooling.

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