White Wheat Pistachio Cardamom Short Breads

The minute I tasted this short breads in a local pastry shop , I couldn't resist myself . Is it the soft yet flaky structure , is it the crunchiness or is it the nutty  taste .... I wasn't able to decide. They were very mildly sweet , nothing much fancy on top or as a stuffing. My crazy mind started thinking about rainy evening with a hot masala chai and these short breads as munchkins..... The guy at that pastry shop was kind enough to share his recipe.

After few trials at home , I almost was hopeless on recreating with wheat flour. By this time you must be knowing that I try to avoid All purpose flour as much as I can.

Recently during our evening chit chat time with friends , a friend of mine was telling me about white wheat flour. I tried making naans (Indian Bread) with this flour. I was pretty happy with the result as it was slightly elastic(like All purpose flour) than the regular wheat ones. Ta da ... there striked the idea of making these short breads with white wheat flour. I would say I almost nailed it !!

They turned out to be as soft and  flaky like the one I had from the local pastry. Should I tell you I was literally doing a victory dance ??

Ingredients

White wheat flour ........................ 2 cups
Rice flour ..................................... 4 tbsp, slightly coarse , refer notes
Butter............................................3/4 cup , room temperature
Sugar............................................. 6 tbsp
Salt ............................................. a pinch
Cardamom...................................10  pods
Rose water................................. 1 tbsp
Milk ..........................................1.5 tbsp
Pistachios.................................. 1/4 cup

Method

• Crush the cardamoms , remove the skin and powder the seeds.
• Crush the pistachios into bits and pieces.
• Mix butter and sugar in a wide bowl using a hand mixer.
• To this add wheat flour , rice flour ,salt and cardamom.
• Add in the rose water and little bit of milk at a time to make a sticky dough.
• Take out the dough on a dusted surface and roll them as a log, wrap them in parchment paper and refrigerate them for 2 hrs.
• Preheat the oven to 350 F
• Take out the dough and roll them on pistachios.
• Cut them into 1/4 inch thick .
• Bake them for about 18 to 22 minutes in lower rack.
• These should look golden but not brown.
• Cool them completely and store in air tight container.

Note :

• You can use any nuts of your choice.
• Keep an eye on the oven after 18 minutes .
• You can use regular wheat flour or all purpose flour , if you can't find white wheat flour.
• I used Puttu Rice Flour for slightly coarse texture , you can find this in local Indian grocers.