On certain lousy days, there are two very specific things I like to do. Make a huge mug of coffee and laugh with FRIENDS back to back or put on an apron and surrender myself to flour. As I sift, mix and blend flavors, I build up this expectation that when the hot oven starts spreading the fresh baking aroma, it would change the crappy-me to happy-me. The kitchen is definitely a mess by then, but the effort works most of the time, unless of course what comes out of the oven looks worse than my state of mind. In that case, I switch off the light, don’t bother to clean up for the moment and go back to watching two more episodes of FRIENDS and call it a day.
Thankfully, a good baking day arrives more often than awful days and luckily; baking to me is not only therapeutic but also entertaining.
I have had several baking disasters in the past and most of the times it would be while baking cookies. I haven’t burnt cookies yet but very often, the end result would turn out to be hard as a rock that could knock someone down with one straight hit. Not that I have tried, but I am pretty sure it might do that. And every time that happened, I would be disappointed thinking about the wastage of food and energy. Looking at a brighter side, there was learning at every step and eventually my techniques improved. These days, we relish more and fear less of our teeth getting chipped.
Shortbread biscuits, butter cookies or butter biscuits as I like to call them, are filled with fresh rosemary and fennel seeds, a flavor composition that worked wonderfully. These are not the kind of biscuits that you dip in soup, but a mix of sweet and savory that goes perfect with tea or coffee. The fennel seeds added a sweet aroma and the pungent rosemary avoided the cookies from getting overly sweet. It was crumbly and melted in our mouths.
I played my favorite guessing game with Arvind after he ate the first one. He goes “fennel plus that herb” and even before I could ask him which one, he took out a couple marshmallows, toasted it on the stovetop using a fork and made a sandwich with the biscuits.
Huh! That was fun. I guess good butter biscuits always help the child inside us wake up and play around. Later at night, we sat with more of these biscuits and a huge mug of hot chocolate. Successful baking and delightful treat, it was a beautiful day!
Rosemary and Fennel Butter Biscuits
Ingredients
- 1-½ cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup cornstarch
- 1-½ cup butter (softened at room temperature)
- ½ cup sugar
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon crushed fennel seeds
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375F and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Mix flour, cornstarch, fennel seeds, rosemary and salt in a bowl.
- In another bowl, whisk butter with sugar until it’s smooth and creamy.
- Pour half of the dry mixture to the butter mixture and give it a mix. Pour the rest and mix till it all comes together. Do not over mix it.
- Using an ice cream scooper, scoop out about 1 tablespoon of the dough and place it in the baking sheet. Place the scooped dough about an inch apart. Flatten the scooped dough slightly using your hand or back of a spoon.
- Bake it for about 17 minutes or until the edges turn light brown in color.
- Leave the biscuits in the baking sheet for 5 more minutes before you move them to the cooling wire rack.
Notes
Nutrition
Deanna Segrave-Daly
I have a rosemary thyme shortbread recipe I make but love your twist adding fennel seeds - so unique (and gorgeous photos, too!)
Sue
Thanks for the response. Let me add they are really quite good. Yesterday I made a bean soup, had they been biscuits they would have gone great. Thats probably why I was so disappointed. I don't know why they came out flat but they are delicious cookies. 🙂
Sue
Hi, I just made these and was expecting a biscuit but they are sweet and definitely a cookie. They came out thin like a wafer, and as good as they smell and as good as the picture looks I was disappointed. I will not make these again.Sorry. I would like to hear if anybody agrees wqith me.
Kankana Saxena
Hi Sue, thanks for dropping by and leaving your note! I am so sorry it didn't work out for you. Yes, these are sweet biscuits, I mentioned it in the post. It's not the savory kind that you can dip in soup but not the overly sweet kind as well. I am not sure why it came out so thin for you, unless you flatten in super thin before baking!
Sylvie @ GitK
Love the savory twist to these buttery cookies!
Ira Rodrigues
I like to make a huge mug of coffee too!
really great pictures you have it here and absolutely love the cookies recipe
Mallika
Wish I could tear my screen apart and get hands on those gorgeous beauties. Oh that look absolutely stunning and delicious too. I am sure Arvind must have relished those toasted marshmallow cookies to his hearts content! Lucky guy I say!
Lisa
Love your blog!!! 😉
Kankana Saxena
Oh Thank you and glad you dropped by 🙂
Kamalika C
Just fallen in love with the pictures....will learn a lot of things from you....glad to find you here...
Kankana Saxena
Thank you Kamalika 🙂 It's always nice to make new friends out here!
Nami | JOC
Beautiful pictures, Kankana, and the biscuits look extraordinary! I love how you put these ingredients in the biscuits. Good Chai with these biscuits will totally make my day. 🙂
a farmer in the dell
three things:
1. I love rosemary
2. I adore fennel
3. I am addicted to biscuits
You are a genus! These sound fabulous!
dassana
loved the pic of the fennel and rosemary....
Shabs
Ok Kankana , I gotta let you know , I made these and they were absolutely wonderful , came out really well . I too love to watch friends when I am depressed , it cheers me up instantly and also baking is definitely therapeutic for me . I think we would be good friends 🙂 .
Simone
Those look delicious Kankana and love the flavor combination ... I feel I've been absent from your blog (and all blogs really) for such a long time... I've got some serious reading to do. Love the shots!
Kitchen Belleicious
okay first of all i love the new look to the recipe template! Looks amazing and the photos are phenomenal as usual and these are the type of biscuits i could eat everyday!
Debie Grace
This recipe sounds good to me. I will try this someday 😉
thyme (Sarah)
Beautiful compositions Kankana. I've never tasted these flavors together in a cookie but I can imagine the aroma coming from the oven was a divine one.
Lawyer Loves Lunch
I love the idea of a savory shortbread and would NEVER in a million years think to pair fennel and rosemary. Just thinking about that combination makes me hungry! 🙂