Caraway - the forgotten sweet spice

I did a search on www.taste.com.au using the keyword 'carraway' - 0 search results.

Then I realised I was misspelling caraway.

A new search, this time using the correct spelling, 'caraway' - 3 pages of search results.
A search for recipes using caraway's next door neighbor 'cinnamon' - 59 pages of search results.

Poor caraway! So unloved!

Perhaps it is neglected so because it feels safer to bake/cook with those spices we are familiar with or maybe because people don't like to eat things with the little seedpods that get caught in the mouth.

Caraway seeds dotted in biscuit dough

Whatever the reason, most people I know wouldn't even recognise caraway as a spice. (My fiance thought it was just the name of a street near his work.) Which is a shame, because caraway has a sweet scent and flavour somewhat like anise but not as strong or pungent. I also love the way the little seeds look, so much so that I was inspired to take a photo of the dough rolled out, with shapely caraway seeds prominant.

Yesterday, on a well-earned day off from work, I decided to do some more therapeudic baking. I'd made a caraway biscuit recipe from Cookshelf Baking by Emma Patmore before but was not satisfied with the recipe. The dough didn't come together at all and the cooking time was too short, leaving the cookies unpleasantly doughy. So I did some tweaking of ingredients and baking time and came up with the following:



Caraway Biscuits

• 2 cups plain flour
• 1 pinch salt
• 100g butter, chopped and at room temperature
• 1 1/4 cups caster sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 tab milk
• 2 tab caraway seeds

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees (celcius) and grease baking trays.

Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl. Rub in the butter. Add the sugar and stir through evenly. Make a well in the center and then add the beaten egg, seeds and enough milk to make a stiff dough.

Roll the dough out on a floured surface until approx. 5mm thin. Cut cookies out and place them on the baking trays.

Bake in the oven for 20 - 25 minutes, turning the tray once for even baking.

Remove from trays and cool on a rack making sure to eat at least one fresh and piping hot from the tray.


These biscuits go very firm so if you prefer a less brittle cookie, eat them warmed up as they soften again beautifully.

Lastly, a word of caution on wildly using caraway in random recipes: though caraway can be used in thick breads (I think it is actually an ingredient in rye bread), it doesn't like yeast so throwing this into your favourite bread recipe may create less than successful results.