Dry Fruits and Nuts Biscuits
Just like Sharmila, and I believe many other Indians, I tend to get confused between cookies and biscuits. Back home in India, only those that are studded with chocolate chips were called as cookies, whereas all others are referred to as biscuits. So you are free to call them whatever you wish, fruit biscuits, or fruit cookies, these melt in mouth morsels studded with dry fruits and nuts are a treat.
dry fruits and nuts biscuits
The famous Karachi Bakery in Hyderabad city is popular for fruit biscuits, among many other baked food products that they are known for. I had always loved these when I was a little kid. These were perhaps one my most early loves. So you can imagine my joy when I discovered a recipe for fruit biscuits at one of my favorite TV chefs website, Ina Garten. I have tried and took delight in many of her recipes, her homely style of cooking is something that I can identify with.
Simple to prepare and delightful to taste, these biscuits have become a regular in my house. Ofcourse I miss those that were available at Karachi Bakery, but these have been successful enough to win my heart and rock my tastebuds. I have made a few changes to the original recipe so that it suites me. For an eggless version, try Priya’s version.
Dry Fruits & Nuts Biscuits/ Cookies
Adapted from this original recipe
Ingredients:
Dried fruits – 1 cup [I used a mixture of tutti frutti and raisins. You can use whatever dry fruits you fancy, like dried berries, candied cherries (or any fruits) etc]
Dried nuts – 3/4 cup [I used a mixture of cashewnuts and walnuts]
Honey – 1 tbsp
Fresh orange juice – 2 tbsp
Fresh lemon juice – 1 tbsp
Unsalted butter – 1/2 cup (at room temperature)
Canola oil – 1/2 cup
Powdered cloves – 1/4 tsp
Light brown sugar – 1/3 cup
Granulated sugar – 1/2 cup
Eggs – 2, large
All purpose flour – 2 2/3 cups
Salt
Method:
1. Chop the dried nuts and fruits roughly. Place them in a mixing bowl, add orange juice, lemon juice, honey and a pinch of salt. Mix well. Cover with a plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature overnight.
2. In a mixing bowl add butter and oil, powdered cloves, granulated sugar and brown sugar. Using a whisk or an electric hand mixer, beat for 3-4 minutes. Add eggs and beat for a minute or two until mixed. Add the the dried fruits and nuts, including any liquid in the bowl. Now add the flour and 1/4 teaspoon salt just until combined. Don’t over-mix! Divide the dough in half. Place the half on a wax paper and using the long edge of the paper as a guide, shape them into logs. Cover the logs with plastic wrap entirely if you plan to freeze them now to use later. Or else, refrigerate the logs wrapped in wax paper for 1-2 hours or until firm (you can even freeze them for just 15-20 minutes) so that you can easily cut them into slices.
biscuit dough logs
biscuits, cut and ready to be baked
3. Preheat the oven to 350°F. With a small, sharp knife, cut the logs into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Place the slices 1/2-inch apart on aluminium foil lined cookie sheets and bake for 14 to 20 minutes, until lightly golden on the edges. Mine were done in just 14 minutes. Once done, transfer the biscuits immediately on a rack and let cool. Once cool, store in air tight food storage containers.
Luv,
Mona
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
April 19th, 2010 at 6:50 pm
would love to know where you found tutti frutti..are they available in regular grocery stores or even online..
Saneeya, tuttu frutti is easily available at most of the grocery stores and food markets. Also ask for them in bakeries.
April 19th, 2010 at 8:37 pm
Mona i loveeeeeeee Fruit biscuits and dilkush , every time i use to cross the lane of karachi bakery the aroma of fruit biscuits and dilkush use to pull me to the bakery and i would buy it .thanks a lot for the great find, iam definitely going to make it , mona i was just wondering if we put vanilla essence or vanilla extract/pineapple essence in these buiscuits to get the aroma of karachi bakery biscuits, i cannot recollect the smell exactly now !!!
Mahejabeen Mohammad, you can play with the recipe and make alterations to it according to your choice. Instead of adding essence, you can substitute orange juice in the recipe with pineapple juice.
April 19th, 2010 at 9:07 pm
Delicious and visually appealing biscuits. I hope to make them one day.
April 19th, 2010 at 10:45 pm
omg!! looks amazing…and only someone who has eaten the fruit biscuit of karachi will be able to understand the life long love for it… am going to try this soon
April 20th, 2010 at 12:31 am
hi…..salaaaaaaamz mona this looooks great ur the best yaar…ur just great……….mona can u plz post me the recipie of chocolate layered cake if posible……
Nishat, Jazakallahu Khair. Inshallah I will.
April 20th, 2010 at 2:13 am
i just want to say mona that i love youuuuuuuuuuuuuu
April 20th, 2010 at 2:42 am
Lovely! Bookmarked to be tried soon!
April 20th, 2010 at 6:57 am
mona, u r MashAllah very very talented, a big fan of yrs n yr website from almost 3 yrs now. God Bless 🙂
April 20th, 2010 at 12:25 pm
This looks so good Mona
April 20th, 2010 at 12:27 pm
Mona! You brought back so many memories. The Bakery biscuits were the very ones to greet me at my room every morning when I travelled to Hyd on work!! With a warm cup of tea they were just heaven.
April 20th, 2010 at 5:22 pm
Looks good Mona!
I am like you I used to get confused about the two especially because in France they call cookies “biscuits” and French was my native language with Arabic;
love cookies that have these ingredients these are delish!
April 21st, 2010 at 7:14 am
assk mona.
just luv these biscuits. shall try soon,inshlh.brings all good memories of karachi bakery,my fav in hyd.
just made icecream cake yesterday and mashallah it turned out good. i was wondering if u can post recipe of custard trffle dessert that is served in weddings in hyd.
i always used to enjoy triffle more than qubani meetha in hyd weddings.
April 22nd, 2010 at 1:34 pm
Wow mona, those biscuits looks so good! i have to try these. u have a way of making the bakery part of it look so easy!
April 23rd, 2010 at 7:22 am
oh these look too good…do u use dates as well?
Sheba, I didn’t use dates in the recipe, however you can try using them.
April 24th, 2010 at 9:14 am
These look and sound awesome! Simple, too 🙂
May 5th, 2010 at 11:33 am
wow looks delicious..
is there a substitute for canola oil.. can i just use butter
thanks
Sans, you can use just butter.
May 7th, 2010 at 6:14 am
thanks mona.. I cant wait to try this..i am going to try to make this tonight.. would you be able to confirm how much butter in grams i should use if i am not using oil.
Approx 226 grams ?
Sans, 1/2 cup butter = 115 gms, so you should be using 230 gms of butter in total.
July 1st, 2010 at 9:02 am
Hey Mona,
I made these yday… They came out really good.
Thanks for the recipe.
Bye
SonuSachin
December 12th, 2010 at 3:59 pm
Hi Mona,
Its cookies and buscuit time of the yr and i was just missing the cookies from hyd and the wonderful dilkush of course… so will surely try making the friut cookies and also can u tell me how to make dilkush too please… thanks for the fruit buscuit recipe
December 29th, 2010 at 12:56 pm
Salam, I made these biscuits and followed the recipe except for subbing butter for the canola oil.
They turned out very good. The texture, color everything was good but they were not sweet enough for the kids. Next time will use more sugar if I want it to be a treat for kids.
They were good for me and my husband
Thanks for a great recipe
April 28th, 2011 at 5:27 am
Hiiiiii,
I just luv this biscuits… will definitely try it for my GF (Mishthi) s she is so much crazy abt these Fruit Biscuits…
Thnx a lot 4 providing such a fantastic recepie..
June 14th, 2011 at 3:21 pm
hi
Can I substitute margarine for butter ? I am allergic to dairy ? Can you please let me know ?
Thanks
Usha
Usha, you can use margarine instead.
July 27th, 2011 at 8:44 am
the fruit cookie from Hyderabad is egg less, that is why it is so crumbly, the texture of the cookie i made with your recipe was not so good, it cake out like granola bar
JJ, as my post mentions, this is Ina Gartens recipe which reminded me of the fruit biscuits of Hyderabad. I never mentioned that this is the recipe for the fruit biscuits that are available in Hyderabad.
September 17th, 2014 at 10:18 pm
hi Mona,
wanted to try this recipe, bt i dont see any baking powder or baking soda in it. vl the biscuits be perfect without it.
and if i want to try using it, what shall i use? baking powder or baking soda? and how much shall i use? what will be the effect of it on biscuits?
will appreciate your reply.. Thank you..
November 25th, 2014 at 9:14 am
Hi Mona,
I tried this recipe and followed the exact measurements. My dough did not become firm to cut even though I left it in fridge for 1hr 30min and also I tried freezing it for around 40min. Even then it’s still soft and the texture came out as cake than cookies/biscuits. Could you let me know where I might have gone wrong?
Thank you