Ragi millet biscuits | easy Ragi cookies recipe

Baking has increased multifold with the pandemic. However, we should not depend on chocolate and eggs for making yummy cookies and biscuits. We can also bake them gluten-free or vegan. Yes, it still tastes yummy. When you look around, most commercial biscuits contain all purpose flour and too much white sugar They taste great once a while but are no good on a daily basis. Hence, we wanted to make something which was eggless and gluten-free for a change. Ragi or Nachni is a good flour for baking cookies. Finger millet flour cookies look like chocolate but has an earthen taste to it. It is also a great way to have millets. I had seen many such ragi biscuits in India ,but lacked awareness back then. Ragi was supposed to be a food for diabetics. Also refer to our guide on millets to learn about different kinds of millets.

As I researched more, I found that most millet cookies which were produced commercially contained wheat. I have also seen  chocolate ragi biscuits in the market. However, great chocolate may taste, we did not want to get too attached to it.

After all, having a young kid at home changes your food choices. Our kids learn from us. If we are stuck to chocolate, they will be too. The more chocolate you have, the more trips to the dentist and hyperactivity in the children. Hence, we wanted to make something which was free of chocolate and also purely gluten-free. If you want to try out some other millet recipes, these include buckwheat cutlets , buckwheat muffins , falhari pizza, Juar(sorghum) flatbread , Sama pudding and falhari dahi papdi.

Note: This is also an eggless recipe and we have used flax seeds in it. If you like eggs, you may replace it accordingly with one egg.( I am an eggless baker so I have not tested this but you can always give us a feedback on how it tasted!) We have used minimal ghee in this recipe but you can also use vegan butter to make a similar recipe. You can also make it nut-free if you have allergies as we have used it only for the garnish.

healthy food journey

Recently, we moved to increased use of millets. That brings us to this basic question what millets can you eat and when?

Jowar(sorghum) should be eaten in summer. Bajra(pearl millet), makai (corn)in winter  and ragi(finger millet) can be eaten anytime. You can make many interesting flatbreads like lauki thepla by combining bajra/makai or jowar and lauki or bottle gourd. You can also have juar jo dodho. Makki ki roti is another flatbread which goes great with sarson ka saag in winters.

Most of us have heard of Ragi mudde or ragi balls. People swear by Ragi malt and  for energy down South. You can also make a ragi dosa or crepes instead of normal rice and urad dal dosa. Other great recipes are ragi dhokla and ragi idli.

Note: Please consult with doctor before incorporating Ragi in your daily diet. You cannot eat jowar,ragi, quinoa, bajra, makai during navratri/ saawan fasting

Key Ingredients

• ragi flour - also called finger millet flour
• baking soda - Used to make the cookies rise
• raw sugar - can be replaced with jaggery powder
• powdered chia seed meal or flax seed meal - This is used for binding the gluten free flour
• ghee - Essential fat, can use coconut oil if you like.
• pinch of salt

refer to recipe card for details.

How to make ragi biscuits?

1. Preheat the oven for 10 mins. Meanwhile, sift the ragi flour with baking soda.

2. Add the flax seed mixture/chia seed mixture to ragi flour. (the below step shows flax seed mixture)

3. Mix in jaggery/raw sugar & ghee and pinch of salt. 

4. Knead a medium soft dough. (there is not much kneading that can be done with this flour), the chia seed mix and ghee is good enough to get this mixed up well. If the dough is not coming together, you can add 1 tablespoon of water or little more(do not add too much).

5. Line a baking sheet on a baking tray.Make a small balls of cookie dough and press flat.

6. Garnish with chopped nuts optionally. Bake at 160 deg C for 20 mins.

7. Store in an air tight jar  

Ragi cookies in airfryer.

• Pre heat the air fryer at 150C for 5 minutes
• Cook the cookies for 12-14 minutes at 150C/300F

• Allow them to cool on a cookie tray or wire rack until it comes to room temperature. Store your nachni biscuits in an airtight container.

Substitutions

You can use 3 tbsp. raw sugar instead of jaggery in this recipe. Powder and add instead of jaggery. You can also substitute flax seeds with chia seeds.

You can make it vegan by adding olive oil instead of ghee.

Variations

If you find ragi taste peculiar you may add some cocoa powder, green cardamom powder (elaichi powder) or vanilla extract. You may decorate it with chocolate chips if you want to make nut free healthy cookies. Ragi almond cookies , ragi chocolate cookies are other variations to this ragi biscuits recipe. Use cookie cutter to make various shapes. You can also use finger millet to make a ragi cake.

Related links

• Sorghum flatbread
• Sama ke chawal ka halwa |Barnyard millet Pudding
• ragi roti
• Eggless butter cookies
• Besan childa recipe | Besan chilla |Chickpea flour crepes

FAQ

Conclusion: finger millet biscuits is a great recipe for making tea time healthy.