Whole Wheat Tea Biscuits | Recipe from Anita Sahi
This recipe was inspired by my family. In our travels to India, we would often head to local sweets shops and bakeries and find a to-die-for assortment of biscuits, milk cakes and savory rusks. We also welcomed anywhere from 2 to 20 people a day for tea at home (no joke). Each visit from a guest would have us excited over the prospect of snack pairing.
For Indians, tea time (or chai time, as we call it) is sacred. Our tea of choice is usually a Masala Chai, whose permutation differs from family to family and individual to individual. My specific chai includes influences from my own parents, from Varinder and from his family. In COVID lockdown, we’ve become even more self-reliant and I have started to bake again (one of my first jobs was baking in a professional restaurant). These Whole Wheat Tea Biscuits were dreamt up for three very specific qualities: 1) They had to be nutty and stand up to strong, aromatic masala chai (ginger, cardamom, cloves, black pepper), 2) They had to be thin and snackable all times of day and 3) They had to have an undeniable crumbliness (think of Biscoff cookies). For the latter, the use of a touch of gram flour did the trick. I mixed these cookies by hand because I love to judge a dough by how it feels, but they are super versatile and, for a less “messy” preparation, can be done in a standing mixer as well.