One of the most extensively used spice in our kitchen is the humble jeera.We add it to sundry vegetables, dals and powder it to sprinkle it over our dahi.

Ingredients:

• 120 gms maida/APF
• 85 gms butter
• 20 gms sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp jeera(cumin seeds)
• 1/2 tsp ajwain(carom seeds)

Method:

• Preheat oven at 180 deg.C
• Beat butter,sugar and salt till light and fluffy.
• Sieve flour. Add jeera and ajwain to it.
• Add flour to the butter mixture and mix gently to get a soft dough. Using your hands works best for this.
• Form dough into small balls. Flatten the top of each ball with a fork. Sprikle a few seeds of jeera on top and press them very gently into the dough.
• Line a baking tray with greased  butter paper/aluminium foil. Place biscuits and bake for 15-20 mins.

Source: Nita Mehta’s Bakes and cakes.

Notes: I particularly like the combination of sweet and salty in this cookie. I found the proportion of the two to be just right. If you want to make a salty jeera cookie, you can simply delete the sugar from the recipe. You can do the same with ajwain if you dont like it. Though the recipe suggests  sprinkling a little cumin on top of the cookies before popping them in the oven,my habit of skip reading made me miss that line.  I  realised that only after the cookies were baked.  Cumin for decoration would have added that extra touch. But thats not to say the cookies tasted any worse just coz they dint have cumin sprinkled over! Actually, if you look carefully, you will be able to notice one or two cumin seeds sitting on top of the cookies. :p The dough is slightly on the hard side, so its not very easy to roll it. It works best to bake small balls of the dough(like you make for rotis) and flatten them between your palms.