Whole Grain Vanilla Cashew Cookies

Baking biscuits for me was more of a compulsion than a choice. I always used to think of biscuit making as some kind of a very difficult skill and never really got my hands into it. My ever  hungry kids would always ask for “something to eat” in  between meals. To satiate their hunger pangs I would be forced to give them biscuits which they would finish off in no time. It was then that I started scouting around for the recipe. Most of the recipes that I came across had lots of butter and refined flour and did not fit the bill. I kept in mind basic ingredients and proportions and tweaked the recipe. After a few disasters, I came out with a tray of near  perfect golden crisp biscuits - the way I wanted.

Whole Grain Vanilla Cashew Cookies /  Atta Vanilla Cashew Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup atta (whole wheat flour)
• 100  Gms butter
• 1/4 cup  + 3 tablespoons unrefined sugar
• 1/4  tsp baking powder
• 1/4  teaspoon soda
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 tsp vanilla essence or 1 teaspoon cardamom powder
• 2 to 3 tbsp milk while kneading
• 1/4 cup chopped cashews (optional)

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C,
• Line a baking tray with a parchment sheet.
• Sieve together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
• Beat together butter and sugar till light fluffy. 
• Add vanilla essence to the butter-sugar mixture. 
• Add sieved flour to the mixture. Knead softly. Add cashews. If the dough does not bind, add milk very little by little. The dough should be pliable. If it becomes too wet, biscuits will turn out very hard. 
• Once the dough is ready, roll out the dough  ½-inch thick between the two parchment sheets.
• Cut the biscuits using a cookie cutter or a bottle cap.
• Arrange the biscuits on a greased baking tray and bake for about15 minutes or till the biscuits start turning golden from the edges  Cool and store in an airtight container.