Spicy Bajra Biscuits / Spicy Millet Flour Cookies (Gluten Free, Vegan Baking)

Event: Blogging Marathon #97

Theme: Paleo / Vegan / Gluten-Free Recipes

Vaishali posted bajra biscuits some weeks ago and I had to try them for two reasons. We are on the millet wagon for quite sometime now and so needless to say that I keep looking for new ways to include millet in our daily diet. Any interesting recipe that catches my attention gets cooked immediately in my kitchen. The second reason being my husband who enjoys spicier biscuits / cookies to go along with his coffee / tea. 

I made them along the lines of a khara biscuit, on a spicier side to suit his taste buds. Thanks to Vaishali, we enjoyed these healthy and flavorful biscuits. These millet flour based biscuits are gluten free, vegan (free of eggs and dairy) and in a nutshell, guilt free. The flavors can be customized according to one's preferences. If looking for spicier cookies, my chickpea flour cookies and khara biscuits may interest you.

Ingredients: 
1 cup millet flour / bajra flour
1 tsp. ginger - green chilli paste
2 pinches of asafoetida
Salt to taste (I used a little over 3/4 tsp. salt.)
1 tbsp. finely minced curry leaves 
1 tbsp. cilantro
2 tbsp. oil
1/4 cup warm water

Directions:
* Grease or line a baking sheet. Also grease two plastic sheets on one side each. Or cut open a ziplock bag on sides so that you would end up with a large rectangle sheet and grease on one side and keep it aside.
* Preheat the oven to 300 deg F / 150 deg C.
* Combine all the ingredients except oil and water in a mixing bowl. In case you can not paste the ginger and chillies, just run them in a food processor along with the flour. Add oil and rub into the mixture. Next add water in small increments and mix until a dough is formed. Add a tsp. or two extra water if needed.
* Divide the mixture into two portions. Place one of the dough balls between two greased plastic sheets. (Or on one side of the greased ziploc sheet and fold the other end over it). Roll the dough into 1/8 inch thick circle.

* Cut the dough into desired shapes using cookie cutters and prick them all over with a fork. 
* Place the cut biscuits on the prepared baking sheet and bake them until golden brown and crisp. (Vaishali recommended about 15 minutes of baking. My biscuits were 1/4 inch thick ones and so I had to bake for about 25 minutes flipping them in between since they were not browning. I left them in the oven few extra minutes after the oven was turned off. I went with checking the crispiness rather than the color for these biscuits to see if they were done. 
* Cool and save them in an airtight container. Serve them with coffee or tea.

Notes:
* The biscuits pictured here are 1/4 inch thick ones. 1/8 inch thickness gives crispy biscuits while 1/4 inch thick ones gives flaky and crumbly kind ones. We liked both but I would recommend 1/8 inch thick ones if not finishing them immediately. 1/4 inch thick ones kind of lost some of the crispiness the next day. 
* I used a 1.5 inch size diamond shaped cookie cutter and got around 30 biscuits of 1/4 inch thickness. One can make them into thin, big circles.



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