Karachi Biscuits

EVENT: SUNDAY FUNDAY
THEME: CHRISTMAS COOKIES AROUND THE WORLD
RECIPE: KARACHI BISCUITS
Karachi Biscuits are soft and melt in the mouth kind of cookies or biscuits. Easy to make, they are studded with tutti frutti and flavoured with cardamom and rose essence. Generally, these cookies are enjoyed throughout the year with a cup of masala tea. However, I love to make them for Diwali and Christmas. In fact, they are perfect to gift to friends and family.
Why Are They Called Karachi Biscuits?
To begin with these biscuits or cookies are not at all from Karachi. They are famous biscuits from Karachi Bakery that is located in the city of Hyderabad, India. As a matter of fact, Khanchand Ramnani, a Sindhi who migrated from Karachi to Hyderabad during the partition, started the first Karachi Bakery in Moazzam Jahi Market. In particular, he baked and sold biscuits with tutti frutti and custard powder. Consequently, over time, branches were opened up in Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Delhi. In fact, these biscuits are also known as Hyderabadi Fruit Cookies.
What Is So Good About These Biscuits?
Firstly these buttery cookies do not contain any baking agent.
Secondly they are fruity. Tutti frutti is added to the dough, speckles of red, green, yellow show up against the light cream background.
Thirdly, Rose essence and cardamom are added to the dough to give it an exotic taste. Some omit rose essence like I did.
Lastly, these deliciously cookies are so easy to make.
Shape them round or square?
In general, whichever you prefer. I sometimes make them round or square.
What Is Tutti Frutti?
Tutti Frutti is an Italian word for all fruits. Fruit pieces are candied with natural or artificial flavourings. Different kinds of fruits like pineapple, berries,cherries, watermelon, papaya, etc are used to make this confectionery. In India, tutti frutti is usually made from raw papaya. The fruit pieces are coloured and candied. I like to use glace cherries which usually are available in red and green colours.
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SUNDAY FUNDAY
Sunday Funday is a group of Food Bloggers. Every Sunday we share some fun, traditional, hearty or easy recipes to make Sunday Family Meals a bit more exciting. To join this fun group, visit the Sunday Funday Facebook Page. Request to join in.
Theme: Christmas Cookies Around The World
This week’s theme was suggested by Wendy Klik who blogs at A Day In The Life On A Farm. Specifically,she suggested “I love learning traditions of other countries through cooking and baking. Share a traditional Christmas cookie from somewhere around the World that is special to you and tell us why it brings you fond memories.”
As a result, this theme gives me the opportunity to showcase Karachi Biscuits that have been enjoyed all over India by millions. I remember a few years back when hubby had a medical conference in Hyderabad, he joked ” shall I bring some biryani for you?” My reply ” nope, I rather you brought back some Karachi or Hyderabadi Biscuits”. And sure enough, he came back with a box. Since then I’ve wanted to bake them at home.
This post was first published on 16/08/2016. Updated on 05/12/2021
Christmas Cookies By Members of Sunday Funday
- Sneha’s Recipe presents Cashew Cherry Cookies
- Palatable Pastime serves up Chinese Almond Cookies
- Culinary Adventures with Camilla gives us Hojarascas (Mexican Shortbread Cookies)
- Mayuri’s Jikoni shares Karachi Biscuits
- A Good Life plates Mexican Tea Cookies
- A Day in the Life on the Farm discovers South African Double Crunchers
- Amy’s Cooking Adventures has Stained Glass Ornament Cookies with Orange & Cinnamon
- Making Miracles presents Swedish Snowball Cookies
- Karen’s Kitchen Stories gives us Zimsterne – German Christmas Cookies
Ingredients Required For Karachi Biscuits
- Flour – usually plain or all purpose flour is used. However, I’ve replaced it with wheat flour. Best to use the wheat flour that we generally buy for rotis and parathas or buy wheat pastry flour.
- Custard Powder or Cornflour – as I didn’t have custard powder, I used cornflour. Use any of your preference. Adding either makes the biscuits soft.
- Butter – usually salted butter is used.
- Powdered Sugar – either grind the sugar at home or use confectioners’ sugar (icing sugar).
- Milk – for binding the dough
- Tutti Frutti – chopped candied fruit. I have used glace cherries
- Nuts – addition of nuts is optional. I have used a mixed of chopped almonds and cashew nuts.
- Cardamom Powder – elachi.
- Rose Essence – optional.
Watch How To Make Karachi Biscuits

KARACHI BISCUITS
Ingredients
- 2 cups wheat flour
- 6 tbsp cornflour or custard powder
- 200 g salted butter at room temperature
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tsp cardamom powder
- 2 tbsp milk
- 1 cup tutti frutti
- ½ tsp rose essence optional
Instructions
- Sift flour, cornflour and cardamom powder together in a mixing bowl.
- Add about 2 tbsp of the sifted flour mixture to the tutti frutti and mix well.
- Put butter and sugar in a big mixing bowl. Cream sugar and butter with a whip or spoon till it becomes soft and appears a little white.
- Add milk and whip well.
- Add the flour mixture. Mix using a spatula.
- Add tutti frutti.
- Using your hands, form a dough. It should be soft.
- Let the dough rest for 5 minutes.
- In the meantime get the cling film,foil or plastic sheets ready to wrap the dough.
- Divide the dough into 4-6 parts.
- Gently roll each part into a long thick cylinder or log shape. The diameter is about 1-1½ inches.
- Wrap it up in the plastic sheet,foil or cling film.
- Leave the dough in the fridge for 30-60 minutes or overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C.
- Grease baking trays lightly with butter.
- Cut the dough into slices about ¼" thick.
- Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes till the edges appear light brown.
- Remove the tray from the oven.
- Leave the cookies on the tray for 5 minutes.
- Then slowly remove them from the tray and let them cool on a wire rack.
- Store the cookies in an airtight jar.
Notes
- Use a sharp knife to cut the slices.
- Don't over bake these cookies. At first they will appear soft but on cooling they become crunchy.
- Replace rose essence with any essence of your choice.
- The number of cookies you get from the dough will depend on how thick or thin you roll the dough into a long rope or cylinder. I made small ones.
- These cookies taste so delicious with masala tea.
Pin For Later:
A little request:
If you do try this recipe then please either
- add a comment below,
- send a picture to my email mayuri.ajay.patel62@gmail.com
- tag me as #mayuri_jikoni on Instagram
- or tag me on Twitter as #Mayuri1962
37 Comments
Swathi Iyer
August 16, 2016 at 9:50 pm
Karachi cookies looks delicious and perfect.
Heidi Roberts
August 17, 2016 at 8:54 pm
I love cookies with a hot cup of coffee and these look really lovely
Shobha
August 17, 2016 at 9:47 pm
Cookies from my home town.. they are so delicious!
Very well made and I must make them too.. haven't given them a try as yet.
Mayuri Patel
August 18, 2016 at 7:02 pm
Thanks Swathi
Mayuri Patel
August 18, 2016 at 7:03 pm
And they are easy to make Heidi, with Indian flavours.
Mayuri Patel
August 18, 2016 at 7:04 pm
So you must have tasted the original cookies Shobha. Try them,they are tasty.
Jolly M
August 18, 2016 at 7:38 pm
Love karachi cookies,very soft & melting in a mouth, yours looks so perfect..I am happy that I am also a part of ur only bakes group..thanks for the mention 💜😊
Jolly M
August 18, 2016 at 7:38 pm
Love karachi cookies,very soft & melting in a mouth, yours looks so perfect..I am happy that I am also a part of ur only bakes group..thanks for the mention 💜😊
Maha Gadde
August 18, 2016 at 7:59 pm
tasty looking cookies and nice images.
Mayuri Patel
August 29, 2016 at 8:28 pm
Thank you so much Maha.
Wendy Klik
December 5, 2021 at 7:28 am
Love the flavor profile of these cookies.
mayurisjikoni
December 5, 2021 at 10:08 pm
Thank you so much Wendy
Rebekah R Hills
December 5, 2021 at 12:20 pm
Love, love all that pretty color from the addition of the candied fruits – so festive!!
mayurisjikoni
December 5, 2021 at 10:08 pm
thank you so much Rebekah.
Karen
December 5, 2021 at 3:05 pm
These are so pretty and Christmas-y! Love the story behind them too!
mayurisjikoni
December 5, 2021 at 9:24 pm
Thank you Karen.
Jayashree T.Rao
December 7, 2021 at 9:12 am
Karachi cookies are one of the favourite cookies at home. Yours look so lovely and well made.
mayurisjikoni
December 7, 2021 at 9:39 pm
Thank you so much Jayashree.
Mina Joshi
January 16, 2022 at 3:36 am
These Karachi cookies look delicious. I like the recipe as its egg free. As soon as I get some tutti frutti, I am going to try making some. I remember buying some of these on my visit to Hyderabad.
mayurisjikoni
January 17, 2022 at 1:20 pm
Thank you so much Mina. It is not easy to tutti frutti like we do in India so I replace it with glaced cherries which are readily available during Christmas.
Shobha Keshwani
January 16, 2022 at 4:54 pm
Very well made Karachi biscuits. These bring back fond memories of my dad. I have grown up eating these. My dad would go to Hyderabad every week for the purchases of the shop and would come back with many goodies. These were one of them.
mayurisjikoni
January 17, 2022 at 1:17 pm
Thank you Shobha, so happy that this recipe brought bakc fond memories. I tasted them once and got hooked to them.
Archana
January 24, 2022 at 3:09 am
beautifully made Karachi cookies. They are certainly the favourites at home and make a wonderful gift. A pleasure to the recipient. They are certainly festive and taste yum with coffee.
mayurisjikoni
January 25, 2022 at 5:50 pm
Thank you so much Archana. Yes, they make a wonderful gift.
Pavani
January 28, 2022 at 11:52 am
Such perfectly made Karachi biscuits. So many beautiful memories associated with these cookies from back home. Would love to try your recipe soon.
mayurisjikoni
January 29, 2022 at 12:40 pm
Thank you so much Pavani. Go ahead bring those sweet memories back right into your kitchen.
Hayley Dhanecha
February 2, 2022 at 2:46 pm
These Karachi cookies look so delectable, the bonus point is that these are easy to make and egg free too. Such a beautiful treat to have for a coffee morning or at tea time.
mayurisjikoni
February 2, 2022 at 10:02 pm
Thank you Hayley, they definitely are a treat with coffee or tea. We love them.
Vandana
February 3, 2022 at 12:36 pm
I have so many great memories of Karachi bakery and Karachi biscuits. My father used to take me there. It’s been years that I have tried them, thanks for sharing this recipe. They look perfect, I will definitely make them.
mayurisjikoni
February 3, 2022 at 12:47 pm
Thanks Vandana and I’m glad that the recipe brought back fond memories. Enjoy when you bake the karachi biscuits at home.
Neha
February 3, 2022 at 1:11 pm
I am so fond of Karachi biscuits. Loved the pics as well as the context of these biscuits. The addition of custard powder makes a world of difference in these biscuits. The tutti frutti or pistachios are a characteristic of these Karachi biscuits. Lovely post!
mayurisjikoni
February 3, 2022 at 10:02 pm
Thank you so much Neha. Custard powder for sure makes the cookies soft and adds a flavour too. However, sometimes when I don’t have custard powder, I add corn starch.
Priya Srinivasan
February 7, 2022 at 11:17 am
We love karachi biscuits! Never miss to pick a pack whenever we visit the nearby indian store! My lil one calls it glass biscuits ! So well done mayuri ji! An inviting treat to enjoy with evening tea!
mayurisjikoni
February 7, 2022 at 9:58 pm
Thank you so much Priya. When I gifted them for Christmas a friend commented that the tutti frutti looks like glass.
Lata Lala
February 7, 2022 at 12:08 pm
Who doesn’t love Karachi biscuits that are soft melt in the mouth and all time favourite.
It’s so good to know about the history of these biscuits. Yours have come out so beautiful adorned with tutti fruity and pistachios.
mayurisjikoni
February 7, 2022 at 9:57 pm
Thank you so much Lata. You’re right everyone from India loves these Karachi Biscuits.
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