Growing up in Pakistan in the 80s and 90s meant that I had minimal exposure to world-class desserts, as we do now. There were no tiramisus or charlottes in sight and brownies were just beginning to come into the picture.

The options were, therefore, limited to the classic cakes, pastries and biscuits that were commonly available in bakeries. There was no worldwide web until the mid-90s, so my interest in international desserts was mainly fuelled by recipes I saw in the many copies of Australian Women’s Weekly that my aunt owned. Biscuits often featured heavily in these magazines — in fact, we still own an edition that focuses solely on biscuits!

My love of biscuits has been a lifelong phenomenon.

In fact, show me any Pakistani who is indifferent to biscuits. But unlike most people, I’ve always loved making biscuits almost as much as eating them. As a young

baker at 16, my first experiments were with sandwich biscuits such as shortbread, Monte Carlos and Melting Moments. Later on, I graduated to doing two-toned biscuits, butter twists, Viennese whirls and, more recently, even nan khatai.

When I started working in bakeries as a pastry chef, my love for Pakistani bakery biscuits was rekindled. I had always loved eating those plain chocolate swirls with a hint of chocolate icing in the centre, or the vanilla biscuits with a dot of strawberry jam in the middle, but I had never actually tried making them at home.

Recreating classic bakery biscuits at home is a simple process with delicious results

Inasmuch as I would be happy to buy those biscuits from a bakery, I am only too well aware that the hygiene levels in many commercial bakeries are less than reassuring, and the ingredients used — especially the butter — may not be of the best quality. These factors, along with a genuine love of baking biscuits, led to experiments to recreate the bakery classics at home.

Here I offer three recipes that are easy to make in a home kitchen. Each recipe makes about 2 dozen biscuits. I decided to pipe the biscuits to recreate the classic bakery biscuit look but, if you flatten the dough on a piece of cling film and chill it for a couple of hours, you can also roll it out and cut different shapes. You could also combine two different doughs at the piping/cutting-out stage to create a two-toned cookie such as vanilla-chocolate, chocolate-coffee, or coffee-vanilla.

Chocolate biscuits

125g butter (soft)

66g icing sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
2 tablespoons beaten egg
130g flour
20g cocoa powder
25g dry milk powder

Pre-heat your oven to 180°C and line one or two baking trays with wax paper. In a large bowl, beat the butter and icing sugar with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Add the vanilla essence and egg and beat well. Finally add all the dry ingredients and mix until combined. Your biscuit dough should be firm enough to pipe. Use a piping bag fitted with a one-inch open star tip to pipe the biscuit shapes. Create small indentations in the centre of each biscuit with a wet finger (these will hold the icing). Bake for 15-20 minutes until the biscuits are dry and firm — they will continue firming up as they cool. Cool on wire racks and then proceed with the icing.

Chocolate icing

1 cup icing sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
2-3 tablespoons water

Combine the icing sugar and cocoa powder in a small bowl. Add 2 tablespoons of water and mix well. Continue adding water until the icing is runny enough to fall in a thick stream but not too runny. Use a teaspoon or a piping bag to put a small amount of icing in the centre of each of the cooled biscuits and leave at room temperature for the icing to harden.

Coffee biscuits

3 teaspoons strong instant coffee powder
3 tablespoons hot water
125g butter (soft)
66g icing sugar
¼ teaspoon vanilla essence
2 tablespoons beaten egg
160g flour

Pre-heat your oven to 180°C and line one or two baking trays with wax paper. In a small bowl, dissolve the coffee powder into the hot water and set aside to cool. In a large bowl, beat the butter and icing sugar with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Add the vanilla essence, egg and 1.5 tablespoons of the coffee mixture (the rest will be used for the icing) and beat well. Finally add the flour and mix until combined. Your biscuit dough should be firm enough to pipe. Use a piping bag fitted with a one-inch open star tip to pipe the biscuit shapes. Create small indentations in the centre of each biscuit with a wet finger (these will hold the icing). Bake for 15-20 minutes until the biscuits are dry and firm — they will continue firming up as they cool. Cool on wire racks and then proceed with the icing.

Coffee icing

Instant coffee mixture (see coffee biscuit recipe)

1.5 cups icing sugar
1-2 tablespoons water

Combine the icing sugar and the remaining instant coffee mixture in a bowl. Add just enough water to create an icing that flows off the spoon in a thick ribbon. Use a teaspoon or a piping bag to put a small amount of icing in the centre or each of the cooled biscuits and leave at room temperature for the icing to harden.

Vanilla biscuits

125g butter
66g icing sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
2 tablespoons beaten egg
150g flour
25g dry milk powder
3-4 tablespoons good quality strawberry jam

Pre-heat your oven to 180°C and line one or two baking trays with wax paper. In a large bowl, beat the butter and icing sugar with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Add the vanilla essence and egg and beat well. Finally add all the dry ingredients and mix until combined. Your biscuit dough should be firm enough to pipe. Use a piping bag fitted with a one-inch open star tip to pipe the biscuit shapes. Create small indentations in the centre of each biscuit with a wet finger. Fill each indentation with a small quantity of strawberry jam. Bake for 15-20 minutes until the biscuits are dry and firm — they will continue firming up as they cool.

Marylou McCormack is a professional chef and holds a diploma in pastry from Le Cordon Bleu

Published in Dawn, EOS, August 8th, 2021