Fight the winter blues with cookies powered by nuts
RAWALPINDI: Having afternoon tea becomes a closely followed tradition in the winters, and is usually accompanied by various nuts, including almonds, pistachios and walnuts, which locals believe help keep them warm in the cold weather.
Nuts are used in many dishes which are made in the winters, especially in various desserts such as kheer, gajar ka halwa, panjeeri and barfi and bakeries across the city also start making cookies made from a mix of nuts.
New varieties of the cookies, and now cakes, have also been developed including honey nougats and almond macaroons.
Honey nougats, which are crispy cookies, are made from almond and pistachios which are mixed with honey and baked in whole wheat flour. The cookies are then garnished with almonds.
“We try to offer our customer something new, something other bakeries do not have and our chefs usually try to alter recipes from European and Arabian cuisines and give them a local twist,” said Mohammad Naveed, the manager at Tehzeeb Bakers.
He said that the chefs in the bakery use dates, almonds and other nuts along with nuts in the cookies and that they are also popular with more health conscious people.
“Almonds and other nuts improve cholesterol levels and people can have them without worry,” he said,
Mr Naveed added that many customers ask for nut-based cookies in the winters and that the bakery also makes almond nan khattai in the cold weather, which are very popular with residents of the city.
“I usually have the cookies with almonds with my afternoon tea or coffee. They are better to have than savoury snacks,” said a resident of Westridge, Taimoor Hassan.