Chickpea, Cardamom and Sesame Cookies

These delicious cookies are crispy on the exterior and chewy inside. They are also eggless and gluten-free (they would have been refined sugar-free as well, but I was clean out of coconut sugar).

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Recipe

chickpea, Cardamom and Sesame Cookies

(Makes about a dozen)

Ingredients

1 cup chickpea or Bengal gram flour (besan), dry roasted*
1 tbsp almonds, finely ground
1/2 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
Grating of nutmeg 
1/4 cup sugar/coconut sugar (add another tablespoon if you prefer sweeter cookies)
1/4 cup ghee/brown butter, at room temperature 
3 green cardamom pods 
2 tbsp cold milk 
1 tbsp sesame seeds + 1 tbsp granulated sugar, for rolling 

Method

In a bowl, whisk together the chickpea flour, ground almonds, baking powder, salt and nutmeg.

In a blender, pulse the sugar and cardamom pods until finely powdered. Transfer to a bowl and add the ghee. Using a handheld mixer, cream the ghee and sugar until pale.

Fold in the dry ingredients. Add the milk and mix well to form a soft dough. Refrigerate the cookie dough for an hour.

Preheat your oven to 180°C. Line a baking tray with a Silpat/parchment paper.

Remove the cookie dough from the refrigerator. Divide it into 12 equal portions and roll into balls,

In a small bowl, combine the sesame seeds and granulated sugar. Roll each ball of cookie dough in the sesame-sugar mix and place on the baking tray 2” apart.

Flatten the balls with the back of a glass/bowl and place the tray in the oven. Bake the cookies or 16-18 minutes (rotating the tray midway through baking) until they are golden brown around the edges. 

Remove from the oven and allow the cookies to cool on the baking tray it for 5 minutes. Then transfer them onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Store in an airtight container.

*Dry roast the chickpea flour over medium-low heat until it starts to change color and turns aromatic. Alternately, you can also use sattu ka atta instead of besan and skip this step.