Malay butter biscuits

"These biscuits are unique in that they contain rolled oats. It’s a recipe that Rita Zahara’s mom customised for Eid and it’s featured in Rita’s cookbook Malay Heritage Cooking. She vows that this has become a staple at Eid in their home and, suffice to say, it’s found its rightful place on my Eid table too." – Cariema Isaacs.

1. Preheat the oven to 160 °C.

2 Line at least two baking trays with baking paper and set aside.

3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and castor sugar until light and fluffy.

4. Add the vanilla essence, rolled oats, salt, flours and baking powder and mix to form a unified biscuit dough.

5. The dough is very soft and can be shaped using a cookie press gun. Alternatively, roll it out on a lightly floured surface to a thickness of 3–4 mm and use a cookie cutter to shape the biscuits.

6. Arrange the biscuits on the baking trays.

7. Bake for approximately 12 minutes or until the biscuits are golden. The biscuits will be soft while hot, but will harden as they cool.

8. Set aside on a wire rack until cool.

9. Dip the biscuits into the melted chocolate and scatter with pistachio chips. Set aside until the chocolate has set.

10. To create that Eid glitz and glamour, adorn with bits of gold leaf or sprinkle with gold dust.

Extracted from Modern Cape Malay Cooking by Cariema Isaacs. Penguin Random House PHOTOGRAPHER: Turhaan Samodien. R350

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