Biscuits/ Cookies Recommendations

anikptl said:

I think we must have a dedicated thread here on TE for highlighting regional cuisines from all the cities and states in India.

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Go make one

I don't know if this is just me, but I love the cookies that the nagori chai walas keep at their tea stalls. Its from—Star Bakery—and they're round, coconut cookies that taste amazing and have the distinctive characteristic of instantly dissipating as soon as you bite into them, and they are not that sweet, also aiyengar bakery nankhatais are good but they are over sweetened, from Mumbai.

nRiTeCh said:

They are only ADVERTISED to fool andh ramdev bhakts. No biscuit is 100% ata. Btw pure ata biscuits are extremely brittle if you ask me as my wife is a prof. baker and chef. and we make our own cookies, biscuits, pizza base and even breads and burger buns at home..

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Damn nice!, I mostly make Foccacia and Pizza base at home, (tried sourdough but the starter didnt survive in the summers ; ) , do you have any recommendations for cookbooks/youtube channels for baking which specifically caters to Indian temps/groceries? I am a veggie guy and my mom would kill me if I bought any eggs, so would to know any resource I can use to bake more stuff at home

and P.S. yes, whole atta biscuits or basically anything tastes like crap, have tried almost everything from pizza-bread-cookies, they all are either too brittle/rough or way too hard to eat, pure atta doesnt have much gluten development if any, and gluten is what you want when you want to bake anything
for all the Karachi recos, is this the shop online? https://order.karachibakery.com/shop/c/famous_biscuits_1348 seems a little expensive but would try them out if they are worth it

altair21 said:

Damn nice!, I mostly make Foccacia and Pizza base at home, (tried sourdough but the starter didnt survive in the summers ; ) , do you have any recommendations for cookbooks/youtube channels for baking which specifically caters to Indian temps/groceries?

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Far as I know this is down to the flour used and to get the real thing you have to use imported flour which costs more unless you buy in large quantities. Since this will be maida health wise people recommend against it on a regular basis.

Local flour won't work as well.

Or have you figured out a workaround?

blr_p said:

Far as I know this is down to the flour used and to get the real thing you have to use imported flour which costs more unless you buy in large quantities. Since this will be maida health wise people recommend against it on a regular basis.

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Double 0 Tipo flour does make a difference (I bought it from a specialty store) for pizza but it's not too much, if you buy any local really "fine" maida you can get there 90% of the way.

The real difference happens in water content, temps and how you are kneading it, for the best results you need a stand mixer (been pining for a kitchen aid for years but that shit easily costs 55-60k), hand kneading will never give you the best results unless you are really willing to put in the elbow grease (atleast 10-15 minutes of hard kneading),

The best way is to get normal maida, yeast, make a shaggy dough and employ the "stretch and fold" method for kneading, this gives me around 80-90% quality as I would with a stand mixer/proper hand kneading

The main issue with India is temperature. it's really easy to **** up your dough if you leave it out and the proofing won't be as good if you leave it in the fridge. that's why I'm looking for any Indian specific resource where we can source incredients here itself and any other parameters like water temp room temp, flour-water ratios etc are geared towards Indian climate.

From what I've been doing over the years. the best months to make any bread etc as a home cook is during winter, my sourdough starter actually thrived and the dough was way more forgiving too with regards to any mistake.

Subhan bakery's Osmania biscuits are great. I've tried Osmania biscuits from Pista House, Karachi, Cafe Nilofar and couple of other popular stores, but subhan's are better than all of them.

Then there's 'Good Day Pista Badam cookies', these are average when taken directly, but feel tasty when dipped in tea. Also no need to take a rescue mission for broken biscuits inside tea, they mostly don't fall inside the cup easily.

I have yet to find some good coconut cookies though. There are so many in market and specially made by individual bakeries, but still didn't find anything good.

raksrules said:

How is "Lotus Biscoff"? I have seen desserts (cheesecakes, milkshake) and spreads based on this.

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These cookies are absolutely fabulous.

I absolutely love the Oats cookies, they are home made are available in my area.
May be you can try it in your local bakery/shop as well.

Black_Hawk said:

I've recently taken a liking to Rusk biscuits. Have tried them from Bisk Farm and Britannia. Love the Britannia Toastea Butter ones more. Absolutely detest how the ones that come with Elaichi taste though so I avoid that flavor.

I'm planning to buy a pack of cookies from Karachi Bakery. These are the ones available:

Osmania Bakery Cookies
Fruit Bakery Cookies
Cashew Bakery Cookies
Double Delight Cashew & Fruit Bakery Cookies

Which one/ ones are good from the above?

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Osmania Biscuits go well with Irani Chai. You have to dunk it in tea and then eat it.