Caraway Cookies

I make it a point to bake / buy cookies regularly as they tend to disappear quickly at our home. They happen to be one of my daughter's favorite after-school snack items and besides, her dad loves to have some along with his evening coffee. And so, I keep on looking forward to try out new cookie recipes whenever I get a chance. Of course blogging marathon now a days is also serving as an inspiration. :) 
I got to try these caraway cookies today from a cookbook I own. Years ago, I had bought two cookbooks on the spur of the moment. The books combined have more than 200 recipes with beautiful pictures. However I have hardly tried any recipes from them though I go through them regularly. Today, my attention went to one of those books called "Baking" accidentally while cleaning the bookshelf and somehow I thought of trying out one recipe today. I already have recipes ready for this week's marathon but still I wanted to bake one more stuff. :)
These caraway cookies caught my attention because of the presentation, easy preparation and their color, which of course I could not achieve in my cookies. :) Nevertheless, the cookies tasted good with hints of caraway seeds / ajwain flavor. My daughter loves to eat raw cumin seeds and caraway seeds and so I had one more reason to try them. I am mostly used to taste ajwain in spicy dishes and this was a welcome change. If you are not used to the strong caraway seeds' flavor, go with poppy seeds instead.

 Ingredients: (Makes about 60 cookies of 2 inches diameter)
1 tbsp. flax seed meal + 3 tbsp. of water (Or use 1 egg if you consume them.)
2 cups all purpose flour
Pinch of salt
1/3 cup butter, cut into small pieces
1&1/4 cups superfine sugar (I added only a cup and it was enough sweetness.)
1.5 to 2 tbsp. caraway seeds
Milk as needed
Crystal sugar for sprinkling

Method:
* Mix flax seed meal and water in a small cup and leave it aside for about 5 minutes.
* Sift flour and salt into a mixing bowl. Rub in butter with fingertips until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Stir in the sugar, caraway seeds and the flax seed meal. Bring together to form a dough. At this point, I think it is impossible for the dough to come together without using a liquid. I had to add more than 1/4 cup milk at room temperature. Form a soft dough adding milk little by little.
* Preheat the oven to 325 deg F and grease a cooking sheet.
* Flour your working surface if needed and roll the dough thinly and cut into rounds of about 2 inch diameter. 
* Transfer the dough rounds onto it. Brush them with milk (or beaten egg if using) and sprinkle with a little sugar. (I was baking another batch of cookies, got confused and accidentally sprinkled fine sugar. )
* Bake for about 15 minutes or until the cookies are crisp and lightly golden in color. (I had to bake few extra minutes.)
* Let them cool on a wire rack and store them in airtight container.

This is going to be a part of
1. BM # 37 under the theme of "Baked Snacks".
2. Srivalli's "Kids' Delight" event, hosted by PJ this month with the theme "Baked Treats For Kids".

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