Thursday 4 February 2010

Whole Wheat & Jaggery Biscuits



What with so many wonderful looking cookies being made everywhere, I have decided to call these biscuits as they are not as thickish or crumbly as real cookies.

When I made and posted these, I got a mail from my regular reader D ( the shy girl is not comfortable with her her name here :-) ) asking me if she could use jaggery instead of sugar.
As I am not so rigid about cooking and exact recipes, I told her she can and asked her to go ahead and give it a try.

She did ... and wrote back that the cookies turned out very dry ... and something was wrong.

I myself had not made them with jaggery, so thought of trying them out myself first. So in the midst of packing and preparations last month ( it is another thing we never made that trip ... everything went against our plans ... sudden work load, then ill health, then the fog playing spoilsport and flights getting canceled in the last minute ... everything :-( ... all in all we rescheduled bookings and tickets thrice ! ... and still ended in a dud) , I baked them one morning and sent her the snaps.

She told me the snaps helped ... she got the idea what went wrong. I do not know if she ever made them again ... just hope she did and was successful ... else my posting recipes will be of no worth.

The one thing I have found out ( am speaking for myself ) is that when baking, you cannot use the minimum of shortening ... say butter / cooking oil, etc. and still hope to get a wonderful result.

True, baking ... or healthy baking ... does use less oil or fat ... especially if you are using it as a substitute to deep frying. But baking tends to dry stuff . So you cannot go completely minimalistic if you want that moist or perfect bake.

Well .... that's my take. Baking experts may feel differently. :-)

Here's the recipe.


Need : 1 and a half cup of whole wheat flour, a little cooking oil ... around 1 and 1/2tbsp, 1 tsp baking powder, around 5 tbsp jaggery granules, milk ... around half a medium cup ( use just enough to knead the dough ), 2-3 drops of vanilla essence.

If you want you can use powdered jaggery too ... or if you have the big sized lumps, break them down to granules.

I purposely did not melt the jaggery in the milk as I wanted bits of it in a bite. If you want to melt and use ... go ahead.

How to : Knead everything together to make a dough like we make for rotis.



Take a medium sized ball of dough and roll out a thickish circle ... like a big roti. You can use dry flour to dust when rolling.

Prick with a fork all over ( this way the biscuits won't puff up ).

Cut with a cookie cutter ... or any small sized bottle cap will do.

Oil a baking tray or use a baking sheet.

Arrange the cut out biscuits on it.



Pre heat oven at 160 degrees C and bake in the same temperature for around 20 minutes.



Done! :-)




I had made a batch in a muffin tray ... the one on the top is one of them ... slightly thickish.

These biscuits were pretty good ... not to mention healthy ... but not very soft and did not crumble on breaking.
In fact, on a bite, they broke into a half ... that tough ... which I'll attribute to the jaggery.

So the next time I made them, I added a pinch of baking soda ... and it did make a difference.

These stay well for about 2 to 3 days ... maybe more ... I just never got 'round to keeping them very long. Very healthy ... these are great as a snack to munch on anytime ... or with some spicy ginger tea.

Enjoy !! :-)


A few more of my cookies / biscuits / scones
Coffee Cookies
Onion Cookies / Crackers
Whole Wheat Eggless Banana Cookies
Cakes & Rose Cookies
Fruity Scone / Cookies with Strawberry Compote


38 comments:

  1. Thanks Somoo! That was quick! :-)

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  2. Oh the lovely cookies with jaggery. Gives them a down home taste I bet. Nice to see you back.

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  3. Sharmila,
    good to see you back with delicious looking biscuits..gur diye biscuit prothom baar dekhlaam ...dekhe bhalo lagche , ek cup cha er sathe besh jommbe :)
    hugs and smiles

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  4. Good to see you back with a fantastic recipe after a long time. Yes jaggery, molasses all these things make the product hard and you are right about baking soda. But i love biscuits than crumbly cookies. Absolutely fantastic recipe.

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  5. Bah ami bhabchilam tumi kothay gele. Trip ta ki finally holo ? Ekhon shorir thik to ?

    Wonderful cookies

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  6. Thanks Indo! They do. :-)

    Thanks Jaya! Cha er shonge shotti bhalo lage. :-)

    Thanks A2Z! I thought so.
    Btw your page is taking ages to load ... and only half. Will try again later.

    Thanks Sandeepa! Holo na. :-( Kothao jaini ... ekhanei mukh gomra kore chilam. :-)

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  7. yaay you're back-it was a long hiatus Sharmila:) Love anything made of jaggery, I eat it straight from the jar at times, and it's such a perfect thing to make to dunk with tea!

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  8. welcome back Sharmila. amio to jaggery dieyi cookies baniechi. ki sundor gandho hay taina?
    between ekhane dekho tomar jonyo akta award ache. tumi chile na tai janano hayni. http://ahomemakersdiary.blogspot.com/2010/01/2-awards-7-secrets-and-some-garden.html

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  9. Hi...kothaye chile etodin???? biscuits gulo toh darun lagche....try korbo... :)

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  10. aamar ekhonii chaaii karon aami ekhon ek cup gorom gorom coffee khete boshechhii...:-)

    Welcome back kichukhoner maa..aar chole jeo naa! :)

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  11. Thanks Ranjani! Great to see you back too. :-)

    Thanks Sayantani! Thik bolecho .. ekta pithe pithe sugondho hoye. :-)

    Thanks Arundhuti! Chuti te chilam. :-)

    Thanks Joyee! Amar deshi biscuit kintu deshi chaa er shonge beshi bhalo jabe. ;p
    Kichukhonn er ma ... lol.

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  12. Sharmila,

    I thought baking something with jaggery. I not sure yet. I will give a try

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  13. welcome back...want some with my morning coffee tomorrow

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  14. The biscuits, oh wow they looks great... Btw you just missed a word there, could have added healthy in the name!!! Perfect biscuits for the winter!!!

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  15. Trust you to go all out to try a recipe for your readers, you're a sweetheart!
    The biscuits look and sound lovely, and I like the chunks of jaggery you left in

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  16. Thanks Swathi, Kalyan! :-)

    Thanks Ramya! I did use the word, only at the last part. :-)

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  17. ohhh..finally, u r back, kothay chile etodin? Missed your lovely post, anyway, what a comeback post..gur diye biscuit..suntei darun lagche, khete na jani koto bhalo habe..try kartei habe..bookmark kare rakhlam

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  18. And you are a sweetheart to actually read my whole posts dear Rashmi.
    Those little chunks taste great in a mouthful. :-)

    Thanks Indrani! Chuti te chilam. Try koro, very easy. :-)

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  19. Seems very interesting, I am sure it will taste just as marvelous. May be will try this one once I get my precious oven home:)

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  20. Healthy biscuits. Like using jaggery in baking.

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  21. It's good to see you back here Sharmila. Would definitely give these a try one of these days! Looks delicious - seems perfect for these very cold days we are having over here!

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  22. Wonderful!! Biscuits look very crispy and crunchy!

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  23. Happy New year Sharmila! amar aste deri hoye gelo.. got caught up in some crisis.

    jah tomar ar trip holo na?

    jaggery shunei besh bari bari monay hochey tough or not:-) ekhane thik deshe r moton gur paina. I am slowly getting back to baking after a long break.

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  24. Thanks Aparna! Go ahead and get that oven fast .. these are real easy to make. :-)

    Thanks Jayasree! :-)

    Thanks Vaishnavi! These are perfect with a hot cuppa. :-)

    Thanks Parita! :-)

    Happy new year to you too Soma! Ar bolo na .. this is the first time a trip got cancelled so many times ... ki ja ta ekkebare.:-)
    Crisis? Shob thik toh?

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  25. Good to see you back here Sharmila...You've been missing for a long time now..These cookies sound good and with jaggery, it does make it healthier...must try and make these for my son...

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  26. The jaggery certainly makes these even healthier. They look so delicious, Sharmila. Thanks for sharing! And it's good to have you back :)

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  27. You have such a creative space here..Don't know how I missed this blog for so long..
    This sounds interesting with jaggery..and looks fantastic :-)

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  28. First time here, luv ur recipe collection esp cookies...am sure going to try these jaggery cookies!

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  29. Lovely biscuits, looks so crunchy and tasty!!!! Will really go well with a cuppa!
    Cheers,
    Rachana

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  30. Thanks Arch! :-)

    Thanks Vaishali! :-)

    Thanks Gulmohar! Hope to see you more here. :-)

    Thanks Sharmilee! Do keep visiting. :-)

    Thanks Rachana! :-)

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  31. I have saved your pictures and email that you exclusively tried out for me! Lol, am just a tad shy :)
    I haven't tried them again, I wanted to wait to buy a temperature gauge to be accurate with the settings. I just bought one and turns out that the temperature was off. Plus I def. didn't add enough fat the first time, I can't skimp on that, you are right! Will keep you posted. Thanks.

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  32. Thanks Deepti! Right ... not too much of fat (shortening) ... but not too little too. Hope they turn out great this time. :-)

    Thanks s! :-)

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  33. hey first time here...found you through foodbuzz..you have a great space..the biscuits look so perfect and the addition of jaggery makes it less in calorie content..

    www.foodlyrics.com

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  34. Love the pics, S! Hope your rescheduled trip goes off without a hitch!

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  35. This very different and interesting!

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  36. Hello Sharmila,
    I am absolutely delighted to read your recipe for Whole wheat jaggery biscuits and i am going to try it with dry ginger powder, what say!I love ginger biscuits.
    Kiran

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