Nearly a decade ago, along the bustling street of a friendly neighbourhood in Bangalore, there was this little bakery called Health Foods. A trip to the garden city was never complete for me without visiting this place.
Breads, cookies and cakes, all made with wholegrain ingredients dotted the shelves of this bakery. Their breads were one of the best I have ever had and they had an amazing selection of cookies too.
Unfortunately, the place closed down when the owners decided to shift to another city. After I heard the news that this place was shutting shop, I had fixed up a meeting with the owner to note down some recipes, but unfortunately I could not visit the place due to a heavy down pour. With an early morning flight back to Mumbai the next day, there was no chance for me to take the recipes. So, the recipes were lost, but the memories remained.
I often find myself thinking about the cookies from this place. They used simple wholesome ingredients and made fabulous goodies with it.
And since this is the season of cookies and since I get asked many a time if my cookie recipes made with plain flour can be replaced with whole wheat flour, I present to you these wholewheat cookies made with unprocessed flour and unprocessed sugar. And they are egg free to boot.
Finding good quality molasses can be a pain, if you are in India. The solution is to use brown or demerara sugar, where the molasses content is high giving the cookies a nice brown colour apart from the earthy flavor of rich sugar.
I have been using raw sugar for years to mix into my son's milk, to make kheer, halva and other sweets. I loved coating these cookies with the raw sugar. If you do not have it, you can use regular sugar or skip it altogether.
Winter is the season of coughs and colds and ginger is the magic remedy to these ailments. The ginger powder and the ginger juice give a great gingery flavor to these cookies, apart from imbuing them with their medicinal properties.
December also happens to be the season of cookies and cakes and of gifting as well. These cookies are great through the year but fantastic during the Christmas season. These cookies made with wholewheat flour and ginger, will surely make your friends and family happy and they come with a lot of benefits- wholesome ingredients and ginger, which only adds to their appeal.
Disclaimer: This post has been sponsored by 24 Mantra Organic, as part of the Organic Mantras initiative. Make the switch to organic this festive season- with so many organic products to choose from, your switch becomes that much easier. To know more and to be a part of this organic movement, follow 24 Mantra Organic on Facebook and Instagram.
Eggless Wholewheat Ginger Cookies
These cookies have a heavy texture since I have use whole wheat flour. For lighter cookies, use plain flour.
Ingredients:
200 gm (1 ½ cups) wholewheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
100 gm (1/2 cup) butter
150 gm (3/4 cup) brown sugar or demerara sugar, powdered
1 tsp ginger powder
1 tbsp ginger juice*
4 tbsp milk*
raw sugar to coat the cookies
Method:
In a bowl put in the whole wheat flour and the baking powder and mix it up well with a whisk or a spoon.
In another bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer) put in the butter and the brown sugar and mix until it is soft and creamy.
Stir in the ginger powder and the ginger juice and mix again until the ginger in incorporated into the sugar-butter mixture, about 2 minutes.
Mix in the flour and using the milk, make a smooth dough. Do not over mix.
Place the raw sugar in a bowl. Make little dough balls from the dough and using a little dough, roll the dough into a ball, using the palm of both your hands.
Flatten the dough slightly and then roll each one of the flattened dough ball in the sugar, so that the sugar coats it evenly on all sides.
Bake in a pre heated oven at 180C for about 15 to 20 minutes or until the cookie gets browned at the sides.
Allow to cool and store in an airtight container.
Makes 35 to 40 cookies, depending on the size of the cookies.
* To make ginger juice, grate ginger and extract the juice using a lemon press.
* Depending on the flour, you might have to use a little more or a little less of the milk.
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Hi,
Is it necessary to use ginger powder?
Sugandha: You can leave it out to make plain cookies.
If I use molasses instead of brown sugar, should the quantity be the same, 3/4 cup?
3/4th cup might be too strong. Try using 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup molasses.