Tea time..once upon a time! Tea time used to be a very popular snack time. For all those of us who are working now it’s either a coffee break or a smoothie break where you get that energy boost for midday. That does not necessarily mean these biscuits can only be had by those who drink tea. These go very well by any hot beverage hey! Even cold whatever strikes your personality.

For instance; when you are looking for that sweet yet savory biscuit that you can have with your tea or coffee. Or when you get guests like my mother in law when she comes round to my house and we offer tea she’s always looking around for that biscuit that she can dip and have with her tea. However. well Ritz crackers and other veggie crackers do the trick if you’re looking for something completely savory.

This recipe however I believe has just the right balance between sweet and savory with a spice that gives it the zhuzzz to make life interesting. It’s called Cumin, in Urdu and Hindi it is known as Zeera or Jeera and hence why they’re called Zeera /Jeera biscuits they are very popular in the Indian subcontinent. Perhaps, because tea is very strongly recommended in that region. Pakistan and India are as they say very heavy tea drinkers and they also have various kinds of tea. For instance; the tea market in Islamabad and Lahore in Pakistan is massive and the types of teas found could get anyone’s head spinning. There’s black tea, there’s green tea, there’s pink tea then there’s even red tea and of course various varieties within those categories Haha.. now back to the recipe.

Zeera or Jeera Biscuits require the following ingredients;

2 cups of flour

3/4 cup of oil

1 tsp Baking powder

1 Egg

1/2 cup of Sugar

2 tsp of Zeera seeds

1.5 tsp salt

As with every baking receipe please make sure to preheat the oven to 350F/180C then gather all the ingredients we get to the fun part…what I like to call making it happen part! We mix starting with the flour…I used the stand up mixer for this receipe

I used the beater attachment because we just need to mix the ingredients well not necessarily whisk them or otherwise..

Then comes the oil the whole 3/4 cup of oil in one go

Then we mix till evenly combined and then I added sugar

Then the salt and egg and the baking powder and mix altogether…oh and cumin seeds the all important ingredient! Ofcourse!

The key is to not over mix, mix everything until all ingredients are incorporated. It tends to take a crumbly shape which looks like this

This is where the fun begins, because we get to work with our hands! Yes you got it! Needless to say please wash your hands before attempting ! When you reach this point you need to use your hands or spatula and bring all the dough from the sides of the bowl into the middle and then with your hands gently knead the dough, it may seem impossible but TRUST ME there’s enough oil for all of it to knead up all nicely and when you’ve kneaded it in about a couple of minutes it should look like this

And NO THAT’S NOT A FUNNY LOOKING POTATO….we’re making cumin biscuits here not French fries! Concentrate!

Anyway from here on we need to make small disc like rounds that you flatten from the top the way they used to make cookies in the olden times however the biscuit method with which they roll out the dough first and then first cut shapes using a mould doesn’t work here because everytime you change the shape of the dough it goes back to its crumbly nature..so the method I use is the one where you pick a tablespoon worth.

Then you squeeze it between your palm a couple of times then make a disc like round that looks like this

But by all means try it out maybe it works for you😁..

And then make these round discs with the rest of the dough and when you’re done place them in the oven..

I made these in my toaster oven small batches in a couple of go-s.. but you don’t have to you can put them all in a parchment layered tray and be done all in one go.. also the best part is you can freeze the dough just like any other cookie dough and make these later!

These yummy little discs take 12 to 14 minutes in the oven that was preheated at 350F/180C. When these bake the aroma that comes through your kitchen especially the smell of toasted cumin …delicious I tell you!

Yum…my! Do try and let me know what you thought! And please like my posts if you enjoyed reading what I shared on here! Thanks! Until next time! Stay blessed!