SAVORY OATS & MILLET COOKIES

Do you have a toddler who’s into spicy food and doesn’t love sweets much, like mine then you should try making this. They’re more like savory digestive biscuits, and turned out super good.

“Biscuits ke bina chai adhoori hain” that’s what we say in India, tea time is incomplete without having it with some biscuits. And we have this special love for spicy food, and this one would be perfect healthy alternative to routine starchy ones.

These cookies/biscuits are little bit different to what we get here in USA. You guys maybe thinking why I keep repeating this cookies as biscuits are, for us Indians cookies are basically biscuits. As we like it bit crispier I have increased the bake time by 5-7 min for myself and husband, little bit chewer side for kiddo.

These biscuits have some really good healthy ingredients, I have used puled oats, finger millet flour(ragi flour), Pearl millet flour(bajri flour), Dried moringa leaves, dried fenugreek leaves and added few basic spices. Ohhh they’ve turned out sooo good. You’ll love them when you give a try. And the reason why I’m calling this as digestive biscuits is because they taste and feel like them. Trust me guys you’ll love it once you try them. Do give a try and let me know your feedback it matters to me the most. And also I add a little bit of sugar to balance out the savoriness and give that nice mild sweetness when you eat.

Here goes the recipe with ingredients and procedure

INGREDIENTS

Finger millet flour – 1/2 cup
Pearl millet flour – 1/2 cup
Oats flour – 1 cup
Chickpea flour – 2 tbsps
Salt – to taste
Granulated Sugar – 1 tbsp
Chilli powder – 1 tsp
Turmeric powder – 1/4 tsp
Moringa leaves – 2 tbsps
Fenugreek leaves – 2 tbsps
Carom seeds – 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
Pepper powder – 1/2 tsp
Butter/Ghee – 3 tbsps
Water – up to 1/4 cup

PROCEDURE

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F and in a mixing bowl place a sieve and add the flours one by one and sift them.
2. Now add in the spices turmeric powder, chilli powder, salt, sugar, crushed carom seeds, cumin seeds, pepper powder, crush the leaves( dried moringa leaves, dried fenugreek ) and add them to the mixing bowl.
3. Now add the melted butter/ghee and add it to the mixing bowl and mix with your fingers bring it together, and forms like a breadcrumbs mixture and when you make a small ball of out it, it should be able to hold well.
4. Now add in 2 tbsp of water at a time and mix well, this is going to be little tricky because of the fibrous texture from oats, you’ll get a good workout to your hands and slowly bring it together and gradually keep adding water as needed to make a semi soft dough. Cover and rest for 15-20 min.

5. Now take a handful of the dough and roll it with a rolling pin to 1/4 inch thickness and cut out your desired shapes using a cookie cutter or using a pizza roller, and place them on a lined baking sheet.
6. Repeat the above steps for remaining dough and place them in the oven and bake for 20 min for little bit chewy texture and add 5 more minutes to make it crunchy.
7. Later place them on a cooling rack to cool down to room temperature and store them in an air tight glass container and enjoy them for 2-3 weeks for maximum freshness.
8. Serve along side piping hot chai/tea or just enjoy them as it is as fun & healthy snacks.

FEW TIPS

1. You can add in some flaxseed meal and some nuts to increase its nutritional value and add some crunchy texture.
2. If you want to make it vegan then replace the butter/ghee with coconut oil.
3. Top the cookies before baking with some sesame seeds to give the nutty texture.
4. You can replace the sugar with jaggery powder.