Savoury Puff Pastry Bites (Khari biscuits/Puff biscuits)

Khari biscuits/Puff biscuits/ Savoury Puff pastry bites are a favourite of my older son and whenever anyone visits us from London they bring us a few packets for him from the Indian Speciality food shops. These light crisp and flaky biscuits usually get eaten within a day. I had often wondered at how they could be made to puff up so much. I thought that the dough mixture for these khari biscuits might be mixed in a bread maker. Bread machines are fairly cheap this day (there is a wide range at Tesco Direct) so I think it’d be worth it to use one and save some time. A colleague of mine often uses his one to make the dough for pizzas, naans and pitas. I owe it Peri from Peri’s Spice Ladle to solve the mystery. When I read her recipe, I got really excited as it was really easy to make these biscuits with minimum ingredients. I almost wish I could keep this recipe a secret as I wanted to impress everyone when I serve these warm with masala tea to my family.

Ingredients for about 40 khari biscuits

500 grams block of ready made puff pastry
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp coarsely ground black peppers
Some plain flour to use for dusting

Method

1. Preheat the oven at 170 C (325 F or Gas mark 3)

2. Ready made puff pastry is so good these days that it’s really not worth spending time and energy making your own puff pastry. If you are using frozen puff pastry and make sure that its defrosted correctly as per the instructions on the packet. Cut the puff pastry block in half to make it easier to manage rolling out the puff pastry

3. Lightly toast the cumin seeds on a hot griddle and transfer them to your chopping board. Using a rolling pin go over the cumin seeds pressing on the seeds so that they break slightly and release all their flavours.

4. Using a dusting of plain flour – roll out the pastry f possible in a rectangle shape to about an eighth of an inch thickness. Sprinkle some of the ground cumin and pepper on the pastry and roll it slightly so that the spices stick to the pastry. Roll out the pastry to about approximately a foot long and about 9inches wide. Cut the pastry into 12 -14 rectangles.