Baking | Two Healthy Eggless Chickpea Flour Cookies – Chocolate and Cardamom Flavoured
The rustic iron Wok which was abandoned long back sits pretty in the backyard of my mom’s place after the entry of that swanky oven in her kitchen. This black heavy-bottom wrought iron wok has been a part of our childhood memories for long. The melt-in-mouth cookies, Naan Khatais, Baatis and sort of spongy cakes she baked in it makes this ‘wok’ an important part of our growing years.
These Chickpea flour (besan) cookies were the most baked goodies in our indigenous oven. Half of the wok was permanently filled with sand and a thin aluminum plate served as the baking tray to bake.
I don’t remember from whom did she get the recipe for these cookies but it has been one of our favorite cookies of all. I sometimes feel that this recipe is a combination of the soft and delicate Naankhatai and the gooey chickpea flour fudge Mohantaal, commonly made during Indian festivals.
The only changes I made in her recipe is to include some add-on such as fruity zests, spices, cocoa powder and rolling the cookies in powdered sugar to make it look more appealing to my children. The crinkles formed when the cookies are baked gives a dramatic look to these simple yet scrumptious cookies.
Easy to assemble and quick to bake these Chickpea flour Cookies are a healthy tea time treat.
Ingredients;
- 1 cup chickpea flour or Besan
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 1/4 cup Palm sugar or powdered white sugar
- 3 tbsp. vegetable oil
- 1 tbsp. water
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp. cardamom powder
- A pinch of salt
- Powdered sugar for coating
Method; Preheat the oven at 160°C. Dry roast the chickpea flour (garbanzo bean flour) for a few minutes on medium heat (optional, I did not roast it).
In a bowl add chickpea flour, all purpose flour (maida), cardamom powder, salt, Palm sugar or powdered white sugar powder and mix well.
Make a well in the centre and add oil and lemon juice in it. Mix all the ingredients to make a hard dough. Sprinkle water little by little to bind the dough.
At this stage you can shape the dough in a log, cover with a cling foil and refrigerate for an hour. Take out and log and cut into roundels and bake.
You can make small balls of the dough. If the dough is hard to roll into balls, sprinkle a few drops of water and knead it again to make it soft to handle. Pinch marble size dough, roll into small balls and slightly flatten each ball.
Avoid adding water to the dough and try to make balls with the brittle dough by tightly pressing each ball in between the palm. This step will make sure that the cookies come out crisp.
Roll out all the cookies in the powdered sugar mentioned for coating.
Grease a baking tray or line it with cookie sheet and arrange all the cookies on it.
Bake the cookies at 160°C for 20-25 minutes until the Chickpea flour cookies turn golden on the bottom.
Chickpea flour Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
Ingredients;
- 1 cup chickpea flour
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 1/4 cup powdered white sugar
- 3 tbsp. vegetable oil
- 1 tbsp. water
- 1 tsp orange zest (optional)
- 1 tsp. vanilla essence
- A pinch of salt
- 2 tbsp. Powdered sugar for coating
- 1 tsp cinnamon powder for coating
Method; Follow the same procedure above to roll out these Chickpea flour chocolate crinkle cookies. Roll the cookies in a mix of powdered sugar and cinnamon and bake at 160°C for 20-25 minutes.
These chickpea flour cookies are very brittle and should be packed carefully lest they break. She used to bake these cookies with home ground chickpea flour in her stone grinder. The home ground chickpea flour is slightly coarse and gives wonderful results in terms of texture and flavor than the store bought flour.
I think I will have to settle with my ready made version till I get both time & energy to make my own chickpea flour 
Notes;
- Roasting the chickpea flour gives better flavor to the cookies.
- Use only chickpea flour and make gluten free cookies with the same recipe.
- These cookies stay good for several days.
- Palm sugar is a healthier option than the white sugar and gives a nutty flavor to these cookies.
- These cookies are not too sweet , increase the quantity of sugar (and a few drops of water to bind the dough) if you like sweet cookies.
- Avoid adding too much of liquid to make the dough, it will be difficult to make balls out of it (press it hard to give a shape) the cookies will come out very crisp with deep furrows in it.
Oh they look so pretty! As you mentioned, the perfect term is “dramatic effect”. I discovered Besan in India and since that I have been using it quite frequently in my cooking. I like the texture when its wet.
we usualy make nankatais for christmas, but I might just reconsider that and start earlier this year.
Very tempting cookies. Delicious and lovely preparation.
Deepa
nice recipe. Eggless baking topics covered by you are interesting. other recipes are good, too. thanks.
Wow…love the idea of chickpea flour in cookies….cookies look delectable and crunchy…..
Lubna Karim recently posted..Haleem
These look amazing … gots to pin for later
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Looking at your cardamom cookies instantly reminded me of the first time I ate a cardamom spiced dessert. It was a cardamom donut hole. That little donut hole changed my life!
I became a huge cardamom fan and started added it to French toast, pancakes, waffles, you name it! So I can’t wait to be able to get back into my kitchen and make these cookies! I can already taste them. I’ve never used chickpea flour, but I know where to find it! Of course the deliciousness of the chocolate cookies go without saying! 
mjskit recently posted..Cucumber & Onion Salad with Smoked Salmon
Ooh Sanjeeta. Gorgeous besan cookies. Love that you baked a chocolate version with chickpea flour. Where have you been girl?
what a lovely idea. does it come out tasting a bit like besan ladoo?
@Nag, Not like besan lodoos but yes the besan taste is quite prominent. The texture is similar to Naankhatai…sort of besan Nankhatai.
@Shulie, …missing out on visiting many blogger friends.. engaged in something or the other.
Your photos simply tells a delicious story! LOve nankhatais!
Kiran @ KiranTarun.com recently posted..Plum Upside Down Almond Cake
Your chickpea flour cookies are gorgeous! I especially love how pretty the chocolate ones are…I need to try these!
Faith recently posted..Cherry-Vanilla Sour Cream Scones with Vanilla Cream Spread
Sanjeeta, I love your cookies! If I eat these cookies, it’s almost guilty-free and still enjoy having some snack along with tea. I love your presentation using the wood too. Very creative and it’s just perfectly fit for your photo shoot!
Nami | Just One Cookbook recently posted..BBQ Pork Belly
The cookies look beautiful! And the powdered sugar coating along with the cracks makes them more attractive and tempting.
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Your pictures are just gorgeous!
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I love the use of chickpea flour to make these cookies – and the flavors of both sound so good. You can just pass that bowl of cookies this way, please
I’m featuring this post in today’s Food Fetish Friday (with a link-back and attribution as always). Thank you so much for keeping me inspired with such delicious creations…
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These are perfect little bites that I’d love to have with a nice cup of tea.
both the cookies look great, sanjee! I would pick the one without cocoa though. Looks amazing!
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Never knew we could make cookies out of chick pea flour…
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Wow. I have just made the chocolate version of your recipe. It is so delicious! Thank you for sharing. I would go so far as to say the flavour tastes like a decadent treat…and yet it is all good for you! My husband can’t have anything artificial or processed with chemicals, so most of the ingredients I used were organic, like organic cocoa and vanilla essence and besan flour etc. I only had organic raw sugar, so I ground it in my mortar and pestle to make it fine and powdery like what I imagine the recipe meant by powdered white sugar. It worked well and probably enhanced the texture. I will treasure this recipe. Thank you.
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Hi, I am Sanjeeta kk. The writer, photographer and stylist at Lite Bite with a bucketful of dreams and a ray of hope.
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