Whole Wheat Moringa Crackers

At times I really get carried away thinking about health benefits of anything that I cook or bake. I had a bottle of home made moringa (drumstick) leaves powder with me lying in my fridge since few weeks. Had used it earlier once in a whole wheat bread and it was sort of ok. The bread didn’t have any taste of the leaves. So, this time the powder had to go in these crackers. Doesn’t these crackers look pretty? Its quite crunchy too.. very flavourful. Yes, but it does have a slightly bitter taste of the dried leaves powder. But ek baar to try karna banta hi hai? what say? If you don’t like it, then omit the leaves the next time to make it. As I always say add or omit any spice and make it suitable to your palate. Add powdered oats or any other millet flour or besan/chick pea flour for a variation.

Ingredients:

• Whole wheat flour 125 gm (1cup)
• Moringa powder 1 tbsp
• Salt to taste
• Sugar 1 tsp
• Chilli flakes 1tsp
• Cold butter 2-3 tsp
• Olive oil 1 tbsp
• Cheese slices 2
• Cumin seeds 1 tsp
• Sesame seeds 1 tsp
• Coriander leaves 2-3 sprigs

Method:

• Clean and wash the corainder leaves and pat it dry. Chop it finely. Lightly dry roast the cumin seeds and crush it.
• Mix the flour, moringa powder, salt, sugar, chilli flakes, sesame seeds, crushed cumin seeds, chopped corainder leaves 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 looks like 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, do not keep it further on the hot baking tray). 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:

• I added morninga powder to increase the nutritional value, but honestly I didn’t like the taste much. But I got good feedbacks from all those who ate it. So it is upto you to skip or add it.
• Use chilled butter and cheese and rub it lightly using your finger tips.
• You can add spoonfull of other gluten free flour or oats along with whole wheat flour.
• You can replace coriander leaves with fenugreek/methi or palak or amaranth leaves.
• You can add ajwain/caraway seeds if you like. The options are unlimited and the choice is yours. No hard and fast rule.
• Make sure you roll out the crackers with uniform thickness. You can use mozarella or cheddar cheese too in place of cheese slice. The idea is use whatever you have in your pantry 🙂