Om Biscuit (South Indian Style Breadsticks)

Om biscuit is one of the most popular South Indian bakery item. "Om" meaning Carom seed in "Kannada", a south Indian language. Its basically pencil-sized sticks of crispy, dry, sweet, Carom flavored bread.


This is one of my favourite snack and i badly wanted to try it out at home. After so many experiments and failures, i finally got this recipe right. I'm glad i did it. I'm sure you'll all love it!

Sending this post to Yeastspotting.

Here goes the recipe..
Makes: Eight 12" Sticks or Sixteen 6" Sticks

Ingredients:
1 cup All purpose flour (Maida)
1 tsp Ajwain or carom seeds
5 tsps Sugar
1 tsp DryYeast
4 tbsps lukewarm water
3 1/2 tbsps Oil (Vegetable or sunflower)
1/2 tsp Salt

Directions:
In a large bowl, combine the yeast, sugar and lukewarm water (105° to 115°). Let stand for 10 minutes until bubbly and foamy.

Stir in flour, salt, Ajwain and oil into the yeast mixture. Stir together with a wooden spoon or beat with an electric mixer or just use your hands and knead until the dough is shiny, elastic,and soft, 3 to 5 minutes.

Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl. Toss the dough well to coat it with oil. Cover the bowl with a plastic wrap and let the dough ferment at room temperature until doubled in volume, about 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 180 deg C. Line a baking sheet with a parchment paper and keep aside.

After 2 hours, Punch the dough and Knead by hand on a lightly floured surface until very smooth and soft. Divide the dough into 8 equal parts. Using floured hands, stretch and roll each piece of dough into a thin 12-inch-long breadstick. Place the breadsticks about ½ inch apart on the prepared baking sheets. And set aside for about an hour till the dough slightly rises.

Bake at 180 deg C until golden and crisp, about 15-20 minutes. Transfer the baking sheets to a rack and let the breadsticks cool completely.

Enjoy and have a great day!!