Sweet Maida Biscuit | Baked Shakarpara

5 from 18 votes

Sweet Maida Biscuit | Baked Shakarpara

The name Shakarpara or shankarpali or diamond biscuits brings back so many memories from my childhood. These sweet Maida biscuits was a regular in our house during Diwali or just as a snack on any normal day.

Prep Time40

Cook Time12

Total Time52

Course: Snack, sweets

Cuisine: Indian

Diet: Vegetarian

Servings: servings

Calories: 112kcal

Author: Sandhya Ramakrishnan

Equipment

Oven
Rolling Pin
Baking sheet
Silicon baking mat

Ingredients

1 cup All purpose flour / Maida
½ cup Powdered Sugar
½ teaspoon Cardamom Powder
½ teaspoon Baking Powder
3 Tablespoon Butter A little more for greasing
1 Tablespoon Sesame Seeds
4 - 5 Tablespoon Cold Milk

Instructions

Sieve together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and cardamom powder in a bowl.
Add the sesame seeds to the flour mixture.
Cut the butter into tiny pieces and rub it into the flour using fingertips. Once we start rubbing in the flour, it will have a texture like wet sand
Now slowly add the milk, one tablespoon at a time, to form a stiff dough. Make sure that the dough is not sticky.
Cover the dough and let it rest for about 30 minutes.
Grease the baking tray with butter. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
Divide the dough into 4 parts and roll each part into a ½ mm thick circle using little flour for dusting the surface.
Using a pizza cutter or the special shakarpara cutter, cut the rolled out dough into diamonds.
Place the cutout shapes on the greased tray and bake for about 10 - 12 minutes. Keep an eye on the sakarpara for about 10 minutes as they tend to brown quickly.
Remove the tray from the oven and let it cool on the cooling rack.
Once completely cool, store the Sweet Diamond Biscuits in an airtight container.

Video

Notes

Storage instructions

Let the Sweet maida biscuits cool completely before storing them. I usually store them in a stainless steel dabba / sambadam / box. My other option is glass jars with tight lids.

These diamond biscuits will stay fresh for couple of weeks outside. I am sure they would stay fresh longer as well but mine has never lasted that long.

I have not tried freezing them. I usually make a small batch to last us for a week.

Expert tips

Sesame seeds in the shakarpara dough is optional, but it adds so much flavor to the snack. I would highly recommend using it.
Make sure that the dough is stiff and not very sticky when done kneading.
The maida biscuit dough will kind of have rugged edges. Do not worry, just try to fix it as much as possible when rolling.
Pizza cutter works as a great tool to cut the diamond shape. You could also make it just small squares.
Make sure to roll the dough a little thick and keep the thickness even. When rolled unevenly, the baking time will differ and thinner rolled maida biscuits will brown too quickly.
Keep an eye from 10 minutes mark when baking. Depending on the size and thickness of the diamond biscuits, they go from pale brown to drk brown in seconds.

Nutrition