Snacks

Biscuits. Rare is the person who has not eaten biscuits, sweet, salty, or spicy. There are thousands of varieties of biscuits or cookies all over the world. Each country has its own speciality, be it shortbreads, butter cookies, or sandwich cookies, and the list is endless. Growing up in Pune, our biscuits and cakes were from the famous Parsi bakeries which Pune is famous for, namely Kayani Bakery, Royal Bakery, and Pasteur Bakery, to name a few. These bakeries sell biscuits and cakes with recipes which are handed down over generations, and the best part is that over the years the taste and quality remains the same. Anyone who has been to Pune will vouch for the melt-in-your-mouth Shrewsbury biscuits of Kayani Bakery or the cheese papadi, and not forgetting the khari puff biscuits. It is no wonder that their cakes, biscuits, and breads are sold out even as they are made. Each bakery has its speciality which loyal customers keep going back for. I remember how Baba wanted bread only from Royal Bakery, and mummy used to tell me to go pick it up, and me cutting across Bhimpura Lane to buy the bread happily because it gave me a chance to go to my favourite library, the Punjab Library, where the owner, Uncle Manguram, had the most fabulous collection of Mills and Boon books and comics. Royal Bakery also had the most amazing glass cakes, so called because of their shape. These buttery milky cakes were super soft. Pune in the 1970s had some pretty well known bakeries, many of them still around even today. Sadly some have shut down, like the Sham Sunder Bakery, where nankhatais were really delicious. Those were the good old days. I am not too much into baking, but recently my son Sagar encouraged me to start baking cookies, and so began the search for some of my old recipes for cookies. Today I share with you a recipe for coconut cookies. These remain crisp for a long time due to the pure butter used. Coconut Cookies Ingredients Method If you like a slightly chewy texture, then do not flatten the cookies.