Easy Lime Cookies

Easy lime cookies are my "Cooking from Cookbooks" themed, Day 2 post of BM #7. Check what my fellow marathoners are cooking.

These yummy and crispy cookies come from Anjum's New Indian. Honestly until I saw this book in my local library, I didn't know who Anjum Anand was. A few months back, I picked this book randomly for the beautiful images inside and the gorgeous lady on the cover. J I was really surprised to see some regular, easy fare also being featured along with a wide array of mouthwatering dishes in this cookbook. I had copied a couple of recipes that had really caught my attention to try later and these easy and addictive lime cookies are one among those.

These cookies are perfect teatime snack and are known as sweet rotis. They are traditionally cooked in a frying pan on the stove top, owing to the absence of ovens in Indian kitchens. She has provided both oven and stovetop versions. I tried the oven version and shaped the cookies thicker. Vanilla essence can easily replace the lime / lemon zest in the recipe or some colored icing or sugar can be used to decorate. These short and crumbly biscuits become crisp as they cool.

Ingredients: (For 8 cookies)
1/2 cup unbleached, all purpose flour
1/4 cup confectioner's sugar (or powdered sugar)
3 - 4 Tbsp melted butter / ghee
1 tsp lime/lemon zest
8 pistachios, skinned and sliced (optional)

Oven Method:
* Preheat the oven to 350 deg F.
* Mix together flour, sugar, ghee / butter and the zest and work the dough until it comes together. Divide the dough into 8 balls. Flatten each ball into discs as thin as possible, in your palms. Or roll the dough and shape using cookie cutters. Sprinkle the sliced nuts on top.
* Place the cookies on a baking sheet and bake for 12 - 15 minutes or until coloring on the edges. Remove and cool.

Stovetop Method:
I did not try this method but mentioning it for those interested. Place the flattened dough discs in a cold, nonstick frying pan and sprinkle sliced nuts / dried coconut flakes / lime sugar* if using. Cook over low heat until the base is golden, about 7 -8 minutes. Carefully flip the cookies and cook for about 4 minutes, over very low heat so that the tops do not color.
In stove top method, cookies can be done in batches. Try fitting as many discs as your pan holds.
* See notes

Note:
1. The original recipe uses 2 Tbsp of butter and I couldn't shape the cookies using that quantity. Next time I will try with 2 tbsp of butter plus some milk for shaping.
2. I skipped the following two steps from the original recipe while I prepared this batch of cookies.
a). Sprinkling lime sugar on top. * 1 tsp superfine sugar + 3/4 tsp lime zest is pounded and sprinkled before baking.
b). Also unsweetened dried coconut flakes can be sprinkled on top.

3. The original recipe mentions to bake for 10 minutes and my cookies were still soft by that time. I had to bake five minutes longer. Once cool, these cookies turn crisp. 

These go to "Only Baked" event at Tamalapaku, an event originally started by Pari.

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