Рецепт Recipes | Three Eggless Wholegrain Cookies and being Thankful for the Choices I Have Made in Life
There is nothing more admirable than when you see your work getting recognized in your own homeland, all the more so, when you are staying away from it. But as they say, we may leave a house or a town, but that does not mean those places leave us.
I would sneak into this online News portal ‘Udaipur Times’ for hourly updates and latest happenings in my town, whenever I miss my hometown in Udaipur. But never thought that some day I will make ‘News’ in the same.
And just when I was sitting back and reminiscing about what all good the year 2013 has brought in for me, I got yet another pleasant surprise. I found my name in the list of “Top 30 Indian Food Bloggers of 2013, first on Awesome Cuisine and then on Rediff.com, a very trendy online web portal.
I couldn’t have asked for anything better. These are times when I take pride in what ever I have achieved and feel thankful for the choices I have made in life.
Readers support and small appreciations such as this is what keeps me going….#gratitude
Coming back to the cookies, I love adding wholegrain in my cookies which makes it more chewy and dense apart from making it healthier and better snack option.
Of late I am seeing these Anzac biscuits from Australia in my supermarket and love the chewy texture of it. The Oats used in the cookies make it a much filling snack and give a feeling of biting something healthier than munching on the regular crispy refined flour cookies.
I Googled to find out more about these biscuits. According to Wikipedia, Anzac biscuit is a popular goodie from Australia and New Zealand. Rolled Oats, desiccated coconut and golden syrup is normally used to make these biscuits.
I added cocoa powder for my chocolaty version and replaced golden syrup with honey as the former is not readily available in India.
1. Anzac Oats Chocolate biscuits
I have also tried the same recipe replacing Oats with finger millet or ragi and liked the taste, except that the dough was slightly crumbly and was difficult to handle and roll into thin sheet. I think increasing wheat flour or refined flour next time might solve the problem.
Ingredients;
(Adapted from Jamie Oliver)
- 1 cup Oats
- 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1/4 cup Finger millet or Ragi
- 1 cup desiccated coconut
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup oil/butter
- 2 tbsp. Cocoa powder
- 2 tbsp. Honey
- 2 tbsp. water
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- A pinch of salt
Method; Preheat oven to 170°C and grease a large baking tray with oil.
Grind Oats into coarse powder and add in a bowl along with Ragi, all purpose flour (maida), coconut, baking soda and mix well.
In another bowl pour oil, add honey and water in it. Mix thoroughly
Pour the liquid mixture into the dry ingredients, the mixture will be quite stiff and dry. Make sure all the ingredients are mixed well to make a hard dough.
Pinch small golf sized ball and roll into a ball. Flatten it slightly and repeat to make all the biscuits.
You might find it hard to shape the dough into balls as the ingredients will keep falling apart. Use wet hands to roll the balls and press tightly.
Place all the biscuits on a baking tray and bake for 15 minutes till they turn golden brown. These biscuits will be soft to touch but will harden slightly once cooled.
2. Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
I saw these cookies making rounds on Facebook and Pinterest and wanted to make some for myself. I got this wonderful recipe from Cheryl’s blog here, and loved it.
For this recipe I added chickpea flour as I like the nutty taste in my cookie. I had already baked similar cookies using chickpea flour (besan) sometime back, here is the recipe.
Ingredients;
(Make 20-22 cookies)
3/4th cup whole wheat flour
1/4th cup chickpea flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup oil
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup banana puree
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. vanilla extract
A pinch of salt
1 cup powdered sugar for coating
Method; Add both the flours, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt in a bowl and mix well.
Add mashed banana, oil, sugar and vanilla in a blender and blend for a few seconds. Take out the wet ingredients in a large bowl. Add dry ingredients into wet ingredients and fold lightly.
Do not over mix.Cover the bowl with a cling film and refrigerate the dough for 2 hours or more.
Preheat the oven at 180°C and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Grease your palm with oil and pinch small portions from the dough. Use melon scooper if you have one, to scoop out small portions of dough, its less messy and make perfect sized cookies.
Roll and make ball. Sprinkle sugar powder in a tray and roll each ball in it.
Place all the powdered sugar coated cookies on the baking tray leaving a gap of 2 inches between each cookie.
Bake the Chocolate Crinkle Cookies for about 12-15 minutes.
3. Oats and Peanut Butter Cookies
These Peanut butter cookies are a variation of the recipe I posted long back on Lite Bite. I replaced whole wheat with Oat flour. I also used less fat in these cookies and am quite happy with the result.
Ingredients;
(make 12-15 small cookies)
1 cup Oats
1/2 cup Peanut Butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 tbsp. yogurt
1 tbsp. oil
1 tsp. baking soda
Chocolate chips as desired
Method; Grind Oats and sugar into fine powder.
Whisk peanut butter, yogurt and oil in a large bowl to make a smooth paste. Add rest of the ingredients into the bowl and mix well to make a soft dough.
Divide the dough into small portions and roll them into balls. Flatten each ball slightly and make circular cookie shape.
Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a baking tray with parchment paper. Place all the cookies on the baking tray and bake for about 15-18 minutes till they turn golden brown in colour.
Let the Oats & Peanut Butter Cookies cool before and store them in an air tight container.
I normally dislike covering my cookies with icing or even dust it with powdered sugar. But if you are interested in icing your cookies, here is a recipe you can use or check out My Recipes and Veglicious for more info.
Eggless Royal icing;
1/2 cup icing sugar
11/2 tsp. corn flour
1-2 tsp. lemon juice
2-3 tsp. water
Food colour
Method; In a bowl add icing sugar, corn flour and mix well. Add lemon juice and water little by little and keep whisking till it forms a thick consistency frosting. Let it stand for 10 minutes before using.
Add a few drops of good quality food grade colour of your choice. Lemon in the recipe gives a sharp contrast to the sweetness of the sugar. The icing will start drying out quickly, so keep it covered if you are not using it.
These wholegrain cookies are very versatile, you can replace one grain with another to get a different version with new look and unpredictable texture and taste.
The cookies also make a wonderful festive gift for friends with or without a little frosting and when packed in decorative boxes.
Notes;
I added raisins in my Anzac biscuits.
Rolled Oats are used to make Anzac but I prefer quick cooking ground Oats for the same.
Baking time may differ according to the oven you use, check your baking temperature and bake accordingly.
You may avoid chickpea flour in chocolate crinkle cookie recipe and use only wheat flour to make the same as is done in the original recipe.
Roast Oats and finger millet flour before adding to the recipe for better results.