Melting Moments - Butter Cookies/Benne Biscuit

The quintessential Benne (Butter)Biscuit.. the soft, melt in the mouth kind - a whiff of these cookies being baked in the Iyengar bakeries, can be smelled from almost a block away. If you ever grew up in India and snacked on bakery goods, the benne biscuit would have certainly made it to your plate. And not to forget these Khara Biscuits as well.

You will need: (Makes around 30 – 32 cookies)

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted Butter, at room temp

1/3 cup Powdered Sugar

1 tbsp Milk

3/4 cup All-purpose flour

1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1/4 tsp Pure Vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Cream the butter and sugar using a hand-held beater or a stand up mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Sieve the all-pupose flour and baking powder, twice into a medium bowl. Reduce speed to low and slowly add flour to the creamed butter. Add milk and continue to mix until the dough comes into a soft ball. Shape into small marble sized balls and place an inch apart on prepared cookie sheet.

Bake for 12-15 minutes until the edges begin to slightly brown. The cookies will still be soft, transfer them carefully using a thin flat spatula to a cooling rack.

Cool for 5-10 minutes and then store them in an air-tight container. I like these cookies to be slightly flatter hence I made bigger balls of dough so they would spread out. If you like them mounded like the traditional benne biscuits, then make the suggested marble sized balls of dough and bake.