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The Bakery 100 · make it at home

Shrewsbury biscuits, Pune style

1 hr, 20 min hands-on · 24 biscuits

Pune's Irani bakery classic: thick, buttery, crumbly, with a little lemon or vanilla, pale gold.

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The real one

You need

• 225 g soft unsalted butter (2 sticks)
• 120 g powdered sugar (1 cup)
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tsp vanilla, or the zest of 1 lemon
• 300 g all-purpose flour (2 1/2 cups)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp milk, if needed
• Optional: 1 tbsp chopped cashews, or a little jam for the center

How to make it

1. Cream (3 min): Beat butter and powdered sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in the yolk and vanilla or zest.
2. Flour (2 min): Mix in the flour and salt to a soft dough, adding the milk only if it's crumbly.
3. Chill (20 min): Pat flat, wrap and chill 20 minutes.
4. Cut (10 min): Roll to 7 mm (just over 1/4 in) thick, thicker than most cookies. Cut 6 cm fluted rounds and set on lined trays. Mark with a fork, or press a cashew or a dab of jam in the middle.
5. Bake (15 min): Bake at 160C (325F) for 15 to 18 minutes, until set with barely golden edges. Cool on the tray; they crisp as they cool.

Tips

• Low and slow keeps them pale and short.
• They keep two weeks in a tin.

Chef Amazing's own home version of shrewsbury biscuit, in our words; not any bakery's recipe.