101 alternative flours : gluten free cookies with a scent of Christmas | water chestnut flour cookies with ginger and cloves

Cookies baked with water chestnut flour is not a usual recipe but this is not the first cookie recipe with water chestnut flour that I have done. I have been working on gluten free recipes for a long time and have worked with many alternative flours to bake cookies, granola bars and even cakes and muffins. Although gluten is not a monster for everyone, not at all to be frightened with especially in the festive season, but one needs to restrict gluten intake at all times for very valid reasons. One of the reasons is that you get to eat many more ingredients having a wider range of nutrients for the body. So start experimenting with water chestnut flour for baking cookies now. You would be pleased with the results trust me. These cookies are very crisp and crunchy, the texture would make you forget maida (white flour) cookies forever. You would wonder why you have been eating the crap till now.

Christmas season is for warm flavours, more nuts and more small nibbles if you ask me. I always need some of the other warm drink whether it is Kahva, Ginger ale, green tea infused with lemongrass or kumquats or peaches, or the good old hot chocolate during these months. Having something to nibble with such hot or warm drinks adds to the winter comfort and what else would be better than spiced cakes or cookies. While the Ginger Honey Ragi cake is my favourite, I bake a few ginger cookies, Sesame-Ginger-Honey bars and Ginger-Jaggery Energy bars too in this season. I find these flavours so rich and satiating that you don't feel like eating a lot. Just like a good quality dark chocolate that satiates in just one small bite, such warm spiced cookies and cakes satiate in small bites and make a great accompaniment to winter drinks.

I baked these ginger and cloves flavoured cookies with water chestnut flour for gifting and wanted to make them prettier but I had very restricted time and had to bake a larger quantity so I decided to bake a sheet of cookie dough and then cut it in squares for the ease and for the purpose of time management. I think it looks alright. But you can always cut the rolled cookie dough using a cookie cutter of a desired shape and bake as you like.

I am sharing the way I bake my quick square cut cookies, patting the dough into a sheet using a trick to make it smooth, baking it till done and then cut it in squares or rectangles and then let the cookies cool down and get crisp. I am sure you would feel lazy to cut your cookies using cookie cutters after seeing this quick method. No I am not trying to make you lazy ;-)

ingredients
(48 regular sized cookies)

water chestnut flour (singhade ka atta) 450 gm
ghee 220 gm
milk 30 ml
natural brown sugar ( I used raw shakkar) 200 gm
fresh ginger root minced 2 tbsp (30 gm)
dry ginger powder 1.5 tsp
clove powder 1/4 tsp
mixed seeds ( I used melon seeds and sunflower seeds) 40 gm
chopped almonds 30 gm

procedure...

I pulsed everything (except the chopped almonds) in my food processor to mix well and make a dough that looks lumpy. Since it is winters the ghee is solid and doesn't need refrigeration before using, but if you are making this cookie is summer months you will need to get the ghee solidified by refrigerating it for an hour or so.

If not using a food processor, you can rub everything together to make a homogeneous mass that looks like a tough dough that binds well if compressed in fist.


Now line a baking tray (size 10"X 11" ) with silpat and spread this dough evenly over it. Press it down to make a smooth compressed sheet. I have never used parchment paper to like the baking sheet for such cookies but you can try doing that and peel off the parchment paper as soon as the cookie dough is half baked, invert on a large wooden chopping board and peel off careful not to break it and then bake again till done.
Preheat the oven at 250 C.

I normally hammer it down with the help of a small rectangular wooden chopping board that I have. The idea is to compress the sheet of dough to make equal thickness throughout.

See the picture below to get an idea what kind of a wooden block I use to hammer the cookie sheet.

Bake the contents of the tray at 150 C for an hour.

Take out, invert the tray on a large wooden chopping board or work surface and make suitably sized squares or rectangles of cookies or bars. Cut the squares while the baked cookie sheet is still warm as it will get hard and crumbly once cold.

Let it cool and store in airtight container. These cookies stay well for a couple of months if stored well. The cookies taste great with warm milk, spiced hot chocolate, warm ginger ale or green teas.

And I am hopeful that you wouldn't think about baking maida cookies once you taste this Water-chestnut flour cookie and the other alternative flour cookies and bars that you must try. Please let me know if you bake these.

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baking with buckwheat : a buckwheat groats granola bar and a buckwheat flour and dates cookie | no added sugar

Healthy baking using alternative flours and natural sweeteners looks difficult for most bakers but many of them do it with ease. I think it is just about keeping your mind open and trying new flavours with real ingredients and not artificial flavouring agents and texture enhancers. I am here with another Wednesday post for Home Baker's Guild discussing buckwheat and amaranth as ingredients for baking a couple of healthy bars and cookies with no added sugar.

Baking a granola bar and a cookie with buckwheat this time as I have always noticed that most families consume a lot of biscuits every single day. Many people start the day with a biscuit or a rusk along with their tea or coffee and keep having a couple of different types of biscuits in between meals as snacks when they get bored or just to accompany a cup of tea. So much so that even kids are fed biscuits as meals when they refuse to eat regular food. This needs to change. One must bake some alternative dry snacks at home or try and get them made by local bakeries. Once the commercial establishments know what you are looking for, they would see a business opportunity in it and such snacks will be easily available.

Baking granola bar using fresh fruit pulp and buckwheat groats and some coarsely powdered almonds is really easy. One of those recipes where you just mix everything and spread on the baking sheet before pushing the tray into the oven. Adding some natural sugar is optional, I have added a spoonful of honey in this bar as we like mild sweet snacks and not too sugary. A little grated jaggery will be good to add if you want it more sweet.

It will be good to know a few properties of buckwheat if this grain (pseudo grain) is new for you. Cooking with buckwheat and it's flour can be tricky if you don't realise it can be a slimy goop when cooked, here are a few clever ways to cook and bake with buckwheat.

• Buckwheat groats get a little slimy when soaked or cooked with water, roasting them before adding water helps if you want the groats cooked separately in pulao like recipes.
• Whole buckwheat is more suited for roasting the grains first and then cooking it with water to get cooked plump buckwheat that can be seasoned or dressed like a pasta. One can soak the buckwheat and cook with some more water and a little butter to get a pulao, rice or pasta like texture.
• Buckwheat flour gets really slimy when made into a batter with water, milk or buttermilk. It almost behaves like flaxmeal slurry but this property is useful in baking egg less cakes and breads. This buckwheat English muffin recipe works well even when you want a bread that bakes on a skillet.
• Because of it's sliminess buckwheat flour has a good capacity to bind ingredients. This peoperty can be used to add loads of grated vegetables or fruits to make pancakes of sweet or savoury type.
• Do not add liquids if you are baking cookies with buckwheat. The dough would result in hard cookies. Use lightly moist dates or figs that help binding along with butter and make the cookie dough.

Note that you can make your own buckwheat groats or buckwheat flour if you have whole buckwheat. Just run through a coffee grinder or spice grinder of a mixie for a second and you get groats. Grind it for about 2 minutes and you get a white fine powder. Buckwheat is a soft seed that powders quickly.

ingredients 
(makes about 20 bars)

buckwheat groats 200 gm (or run the whole buckwheat in blender for a second and use)
almonds 200 gm (coarsely powdered)
Fresh apricots seeds removed 180 gm
honey 1 tbsp or a little more
nutmeg powder a pinch

procedure 

Pulp the apricots well along with the honey. You might want to use a little more honey of the apricots are tart.

Mix with the buckwheat groats and almond meal using hands and knead lightly to make a sticky dough. Adding the apricot pulp slowly works better, add a little more of the pulp if required as it depends on how ripe and juicy the apricots are.

Spread this mixture on silpat sheet or any nonstick baking sheet and pat to make a thin layer of the mixture (a little less than one cm). Use a flat spatula to keep the margins straight. Then mark the sheet to cut bars.

Bake in preheated oven at 160 C for 25 minutes. Take out the baking tray and invert the silpat on a large chopping board. Cut the bars as marked. Spread them again on the baking sheet and bake again on 150 C for 30 minutes or till they get firm and crunchy.

I have been working on many recipes of granola bars and cookies baked using alternative flours. Some are here on this blog and some more to come but the thing is, we rarely snack on these cookies and granola bars. These kind of cookies, bars and some roasted nuts are useful only when we travel to places where we have to trek or hike and carrying light weight dry food is convenient. At home we love to snack on fruits and some freshly cooked snacks like roasted nuts, a bowl of poha, jhal mudi or a sprouts chaat.

This granola bar using amaranth flour is also baked sometimes for everyday snacking.

Being ginger and jaggery rich, this amaranth bar is more suited for winters. Even the cookies with buckwheat that I am sharing now will be more suited for winters with war spicing. It would be great if you add bits of candied ginger ti the dough.

This cookie with buckwheat flour would surprise you in the way it looks and the way it tastes. Mildly spiced and pleasantly sweet and nutty, this cookie has not used any nuts in it. Add a little more butter to this cookie when baking for kids as with lesser butter (as in this recipe) the cookies are better suited for adults. Butter makes these cookies really crisp. Sticking some chopped nuts or poppy seeds on these cookies will make it more attractive for the kids as well.

This cookie dough is a very good base for tarts as well. Try that sometime to make gluten free fruit tarts for kids.

ingredients
(for 20 small cookies(
I am giving cup measurements as the battery of my kitchen weighing scale died as I was making it.

buckwheat flour 1 cup
good quality soft dates (not sticky ones) 18
butter 1/4 cup
clove powder 1 pinch
nutmeg powder 1 pinch
ginger powder 1/4th tsp

procedure

Chop the dates and remove seeds.
Place all ingredients in a blender and mix well till it resembles bread crumbs or is the consistency of a tart dough. If you take a spoonful of mixture and apply pressure, it binds well.

Make small balls of this mixture, flatten all of them and arrange on a baking sheet.

Bake in a preheated oven at 160 C for 25 minutes.

This cookie is dense but a nice nutty crunch with a hint of spice gives it a unique flavour. You might like to add some chopped dehydrated fruits like cranberries or candied peel to this cookie dough to make it more enjoyable for the kids. This is an easy almost 2 step recipe suitable for busy adults who bake in the night to save time. Yes I baked this cookie in the night.

You would know how tasty buckwheat can be if you use it the right way. There are many buckwheat recipes on my blog you can try once you start getting buckwheat in your pastry. Buckwheat has been used in our homes for centuries, more for fasting foods during navratri and other festivals.

So buckwheat is completely sattvic in vedic terms, tags like gluten free and low glycemic, high protein etc started being relevant only recently. And did you notice how apricots and dates make wonderful natural sweeteners?

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