Ingredients:
1/2 cup ragi
1/2 cup whole wheat flour (aata)
3/4 cup desiccated coconut
1/2 cup ghee
1/2 cup jaggery powder
1/2 cup baking powder
1 tsp vanilla essence
3 tablespoon(tbsp) milk
A pinch of salt
3 tbsp of desiccated coconut
Instructions:
Working with dry ingredients
- Sieve the ragi, whole wheat flour, salt, and 1/2 tsp baking powder.
- To this sieved mixture add 3/4th cup of desiccated coconut. Mix all the ingredients well.
- Keep aside.
Working with wet ingredients
- In a big bowl take ghee and jaggery and whisk them together, till the mixture is light and creamy. Make sure the ghee that you take should not be flowy but hard( Consistency should be soft but not flowy.)
- To this light and creamy mixture add 1tsp vanilla essence.
Let’s get them together
- Now add the dry ingredients to the wet fluffy mixture. Make sure to mix in the cut and fold method and do not over-mix. Bring them together. It might look like dough. In case you find the mixture is not coming together well, then add milk 1 tbsp at a time.
- Now, keep this prepared dough in the refrigerator for at least 30 mins.
- After 30 mins take it out of the refrigerator. Press the dough, it should not be too hard or too soft.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C. If you are using a microwave, then do the same in convection mode.
- Keep your baking sheet ready with a parchment paper spread.
- Now take a small quantity and roll it in between your palm to make balls. What size you want depends upon you. I prefer the ball size half to that of a chapati ball.
- Press the cookie dough ball between your palms. Make sure there are no cracks on the edges or the top.
- Now take 3 tbsp of desiccated coconut on a plate and spread it. Take your cookie and dip it in desiccated coconut. Please make sure the edges, top, and bottom are nicely coated with the coconut.
- Keep it on the baking tray.
- Now make more such cookies and keep them on the tray.
Awesome, so now you are ready to bake.
- Keep the tray in the preheated oven and bake the cookies for 15 to 18 mins( depending on the oven that you are using). If you are making small-size cookies then bake for 12 to 15 mins.
- After the stipulated time, make sure to just check, if the bottom of the cookies is slightly brown, they are done, else you can bake for a minute or two more.
- Take out the oven or microwave, and let the cookies cool down to room temperature.
- Remember don’t overbake because during the cooling stage also, they are cooking in their own heat.
Your delicious ragi cookies with the richness of ghee, the sweetness of jaggery, and the crunchiness and comfort of coconut are ready to be indulged in.
Notes:
- Keep the ghee in the fridge because at room temperature the ghee is very flowy and that would help in creaming. So ghee should look like soft butter.
- Once you take out the dough from the refrigerator, you should be able to mold it into balls easily. The purpose of keeping it in the fridge is to harden the fat content. If you want to refrigerate for more time for later baking you can do. Just make sure that the dough should be kept out for some time because the fat in the dough will be too hard to work with.
- These cookies can be best had as it is or with cream cheese.
- Instead of vanilla essence, you can also add cardamom powder.
Recipe Credit: Mrs. Deepti Sehgal