Whole Wheat Cumin Crackers

We had a family get together and many of my hubby’s cousins were expecting me to get some baked goodies for them. I was equally enthusiastic to bake whatever I could. After making 2-3 varieties of sweet cookies, I wanted to make some simple savoury cookies or crackers for the elders in the family who couldn’t eat the sweet ones. A day earlier, I made some whole wheat crackers with some dried moringa (drumstick) leaves powder in it to make it more healthier. But after tasting that, I was a bit skeptical whether all would like the slightly bitter taste of dried leaves. So, here is a simple whole wheat jeera crackers with some gram flour and fresh green chilies in it. Trust me it tastes superb. Very healthy and perfect for a mid morning snack or with your evening tea. Make it for the elders in the home and they are surely going to love you for it. Be creative and add or omit any spice or masala and try it. If you do not have cheese, no worries… simply omit it. Make the dough, give it some resting time, roll it very thin of uniform thickness, cut into equal sized pieces, poke holes on them and then bake. Its very crunchy and crispy. Roasting the cumin seeds before crushing them imparts it a beautiful flavour. Once you start making these at home, its going to be good bye to all those Britannia crackers 🙂

Ingredients:

• Whole wheat flour 125 gm (1 cup)
• Besan/gram flour 2 tbsp
• Salt as required
• Cumin seeds 1 tsp
• Sugar 1 tsp
• Butter 2-3 tsp
• Cheese slice 1-2
• Olive oil 1 tbsp
• Green chillies 1-2
• Coriander leaves 2-3 sprigs

Method:

• Clean and wash the corainder leaves and green chillies and pat it dry. Chop them finely. Lightly dry roast the cumin seeds and crush it.
• Mix the flour, salt, sugar, crushed cumin seeds, chopped corainder leaves and green chillies nicely.
• Cut the chilled butter and cheese slices into small pieces and rub it in the dry ingredients with your finger tips till the mixture resembles sand.
• Slowly add the oil and sprinkle water and knead to form a dough. Do not knead hard. Just combine everything so that it becomes a unified mass.
• Let the dough rest for 20-25 minutes.
• Meanwhile preheat the oven at 160-170 degree Celsius for atleast 10 minutes.
• Line a baking tray with parchment paper and keep it aside.
• Take a small portion from the dough and take it on a piece of parchment paper and keep another parchment paper on top of it. Roll the dough using a rolling pin into thin rotis/disks.
• Take a sharp knife or cookie cutter and cut into desired shape and size. Repeat with the entire dough.
• Place these thin crackers on the baking tray and poke some holes on it using a fork or toothpick (for uniform baking and to reduce puffing up).
• Bake it for 10-12 minutes or till it becomes golden. Keep an eye on it after 10 minutes, because it tends to burn fast being very thin.
• Remove from oven and allow it to rest on the tray for 3-4 minutes. (if it is already brown, transfer it on to a cooling rack immediately). Transfer onto a cooling rack and allow it to cool well.
• Once it is fully cooled, store it in air tight containers. Enjoy these guilt free snacks along with your morning or evening cuppa/coffee 🙂

Notes:

• Keeping the dough between the parchment paper and then rolling it makes it very easy to roll. Else it might tend to break or crumble while rolling.
• Incase you want to bake slightly thicker cookies, increase the baking time accordingly.
• The thin ones stay crisp for more than a week. (It might be staying longer, but I don’t think these will last longer than a week).