Cardamom (Elaichi) Biscuits

Minky and I wanted cardamom cookies...so we made them. Throughout my stay in India we never knew when our next meal would be or if we'd be stuck in a jeep driving for 6 hours. A lot of us started to store up stashes of food for long road trips or in between trips to the market. I always bought tons of apples, pomegranates and, of course, Elaichi biscuits. While we were grinding the seeds to make these delicious treats I had a flashback to India.
This recipe is an altered recipe for cinnamon snaps. I changed the recipe a little to use granulated sugar so that it wouldn't have the dark molasses flavor of brown sugar. I left a little bit of brown sugar in though to give the cookies color.
Enjoy!


Makes 5 dozen cookies

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 Tablespoons (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 egg whites


Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and lighly grease cookie sheets.
Combine flour, sugar, cardamom, and salt in medium-size bowl; cut in butter or margarine with a pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Mix in egg whites and vanilla, stirring just enough to form a soft dough.
Roll dough into small marble size balls and place on pan about 1 inch apart (balls will flatten as they bake). Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until edges of cookies are browned.
Cool and eat.