1. Pearl Millet Flour:250gms
2. Palm Jaggery Powder:100gms
3. Desiccated Coconut:60gms
4. Coconut Milk:1-2tablespoons
5. Desi Cow Ghee Procedure: 120 ml (melted ghee at room temperature)
DESICCATED COCONUT: Choose a coconut that is neither tender nor too mature. Break open the coconut, separate the meat from the shell. Peel the brown layer on the coconut meat and slice it. Add coconut slices to a blender or a mixer grinder and grind it without adding water. Take a thick bottomed pan and fry the coconut grounds on a low flame by stirring continuously until it turns dry. Turn off the flame and allow it to cool completely. Transfer it into an air tight container.
PALM JAGGERY POWDER: Place a steel vessel on stove, pour half cup of water, add the pounded palm jaggery to it and heat (for one cup of palm jaggery we need half a cup of water). Once the jaggery melts completely, strain the soluton into a heavy bottomed vessel. The strained solution should be boiled until it reaches double string consistency (mudurupakam). When it is lukewarm scrape the hardened syrup. After it completely cools down, powder it using a mixer grinder.
COOKIES: Add ghee to a heavy bottomed pan and roast pearl millet until the millet flour gives out nice nutty aroma. After it cools down sift the flour. Add palm jaggery powder and ghee to another bowl and whisk it for few minutes. To it add the sifted flour, desiccated coconut and mix well. If required add few tablespoons of coconut milk. Mix them all thoroughly until well combined (do not over knead the dough). Place a heavy bottomed wide pan with a steel stand in it on a stove (sand or salt can be added as well to the pan), cover and preheat for ten minutes on low flame. Meanwhile grease a steel plate with ghee and dust it with flour evenly so that cookies come out easily. Now take small portions of dough, roll them into smooth balls and slightly flatten them. Roll them in desiccated coconut. Now place these on the dusted plate leaving a little gap between each other.This makes about sixteen to twenty cookies. Now carefully place this plate in the preheated pan and bake on low flame until the cookies turn golden brown. It might take about fifteen to twenty minutes. Remove the plate from pan and allow it cool completely. NOTE: Dough can be cut into different shapes using cookie cutters. Cookies have been baked in two batches.
A WORD OF CAUTION: Baking Soda should not be consumed on a regular basis as it is not a natural product. You may add half a teaspoon to the flour just before sifting.
