Servings : Makes 20 biscuits
If you've ever been to Mombasa (Kenya) or have had relatives/friends live there or travel there, then it would be pretty much impossible not to know the famous HB Biscuits of Mombasa. HB stands for Husseini Bakery. The HB biscuits are known for being some of the most amazing cookies ever!! They are a buttery, crumbly type of nan khatais, each one measuring about 3.5" in diameter. Needless to say, they are huge! And AMAZING! They normally have the HB imprint on them.
So, here is my take on them, only instead of being HB cookies, mine are FB cookies…Fauzia's Bakery! 😉
These gorgeous cookies turned out pretty close to the real deal! They looked exactly the same in every way except for the FB instead of HB.
Ingredients
- 250gm unsalted butter, room temperature
- 3/4 cup castor/grinded sugar
- 1 egg, lightly beaten, room temperature
- 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 4 tbsp. custard powder (plain/vanilla flavor)
- few drops of yellow food colouring
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 4 tbsp. fine sooji/semolina
- 1 tsp. vanilla essence
- 1/2 tsp. salt
Instructions
First, mix the flour, custard powder, semolina, salt and baking powder together in a bowl and set it aside.
In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar, add the drops of color. Beat in the egg and vanilla until fluffy.
Now gradually add in the dry ingredients and mix until the dough comes together. Do not over-mix as that will ruin the crumbly consistency. Only mix enough for everything to get well-combined.
If you feel that the dough needs a bit more flour, add a tbsp. at a time. Do not over-knead the mixture. Keep in mind that the dough will be chilled before shaping and baking, so it will stiffen up some more later, so don't add more flour than you absolutely need to.
Transfer the dough into a piece of cling film and wrap it up tight. Refrigerate for about an hour.
Place some greaseproof paper on your baking sheets. Divide the dough into about 20-21 equal balls. Shape them into big circles of about 3" each, using the palms of your hand, like how we make burger patties. Place them on the tray and flatten/level them slightly and gently. Remember to leave enough room around them as they will expand slightly during baking. You can make imprints on them at this point, I used the blunt end of a skewer to press on the cookies the letters FB. 🙂
Once all are shaped, place the trays again into the refrigerator for another half an hour to chill.
In the meantime, pre-heat the oven at 160 C. These cookies are normally large, so we need a lower temperature in order to get them to crisp up properly without getting brown.
Bake for about 20-25 minutes. When they are half-way done, turn the trays around so that the cookies get evenly baked, and if at any time you feel they are starting to take too much color, lower the heat some more.
Once they are ready, remove them onto a wire-rack to cool completely. When they come out of the oven they will be slightly soft, but don't worry as they will crisp up as they cool.
After they've cooled COMPLETELY and if you feel they are still not quite crisp enough, just pop them back into the oven on low temperature of about 120-140 C and bake them for another 10 minutes until you are satisfied with the results.
Store them in an airtight container.
Enjoy! 🙂
Hello,dear.
Hello,dear.
How are you?
Wow I made this fb cookies it was soo delicious
Just amazing.
But it made me one mistake which I don’t recognize it
Can u please find me out
It baked very yumm but it Tuk almost 45mins.
When ready I Tuk them out from oven,but were little soft it was coming the text of the uncooked mixture from
Downside..then I upside down n kept it more tho other were ready but other left the same uncooked mix taste
What went wrong here from my side can u please help me out
The
Hi, thanks for the lovely
Hi, thanks for the lovely feedback. Did you preheat the oven before baking the cookies?
Yep I did preheat the oven
Yep I did preheat the oven when taking out from the freezer the dough after an hour
Ok then it could be that they
Ok then it could be that they needed more time. It depends on the thickness of the cookies and also the heating of your oven, some ovens take a while to heat up. 🙂
Hmmm…. I wil try it back
Hmmm…. I wil try it back hopefully…thanks for ur support
aslm.alkm. can i use salted
aslm.alkm. can i use salted butter instead of unsalted
.thts KCC butter
W/Salaam, yes that is fine.
W/Salaam, yes that is fine. Just omit the salt used in the recipe ingredients.
Hi Fauzia
Hi Fauzia
Recently registered into the account.
Yesterday tried these FBs and they turned out superb….. thanks!!!
Have also tried your Chicken Bread which turned out fantastic as well……
Salaams
my first question is how long
my first question is how long can I store these HB cookies for? and my second question is can I use regular butter or margarine instead of unsalted butter or margarine?
They keep well in an airtight
They keep well in an airtight container for up to a month. And yes you can use salted butter, just make sure to reduce the salt in the recipe itself.
What is unsalted butter.
What is unsalted butter.
If u don’t mind will u name some company brand so I could get an idea. Coz I stay in Malawi. Coz we probably get stuffs from southAfrica and Kenya
It is butter that has no salt
It is butter that has no salt added to it. You can as well use salted butter if you like, just omit the salt used in the recipe. 2 of the Kenyan brands I like are KCC butter and Brookside butter. Anchor is also a great brand that is available in many countries.
hi Fozia my hb biscuits
hi Fozia my hb biscuits turned our tasty but got a bit burnt from the bottom and they break very easily .Please advice what I can do to improve this.please advise the rack should be top or middle or bottom.
Hi, try to reduce the heat if
Hi, try to reduce the heat if your oven runs too hot from the bottom. That should help with the burning. Always use the middle rack during baking.
Asalam aleikum can I use
Asalam aleikum can I use salted butter and not add the salt?
Yes you can.
If we use margarine instead of butter, will it be ok?
It will be ok yes but it will not taste exactly the same.