Kuttu Atta Cookies (Buckwheat Flour Cookies)
Prep 10 min · Cook 20 min · Serves 10
Make
Ingredients
- buckwheat flour (kuttu atta) — 1 cup
- almonds — 1/4 cup (powdered)
- ghee — 50 g
- sugar — 1/2 cup (powdered)
- green cardamom — 1/2 tsp (powdered)
- salt (as per taste)
- water (as required)
Method
- Beat the ghee with the powdered sugar, cardamom and salt.
- Add the kuttu atta and powdered almonds, then just enough water to knead a dough.
- Cover and rest for 10 minutes. Roll small balls, flatten them and set them on a baking tray.
- Bake in a preheated oven at 150 C for about 10 minutes, until firm. If the bottoms are still soft, turn them over and bake a little longer.
Tips
- General practice: buckwheat dough has no gluten, so the cookies stay crumbly; let them cool on the tray before lifting.
Fresh atta: grind small, use soon
- Millets keep for months as whole grain; flour is best ground as it is needed, because it turns rancid. (FAO, Sorghum and millets in human nutrition (1995))
- Bajra changes fastest: its grain stores for months, but its milled flour has a very short shelf life. (ICAR-IIMR scientists, Food Chemistry Advances (2023) (DOI 10.1016/j.focha.2023.100190))
- In an Indian study, untreated bajra flour stayed within the quality limit only about 2 days at room temperature. (ICAR-IARI, Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences (2016))
- Ragi flour keeps better than foxtail, barnyard or bajra flour (it carries less fat). (Planta (2024), review)
- Keep atta closed and cool: bajra flour kept best in polythene and worst in gunny sacks; grains should be dry and in airtight containers. (Chaudhary & Kapoor, J Sci Food Agric (1984); ICMR-NIN Dietary Guidelines (2024) (DOI 10.1002/jsfa.2740351113))
- Going off shows first as smell and taste — sour, musty or dusty, then bitter. (Lai & Varriano-Marston, Cereal Chemistry (1980))
So: buy the grain, grind a week’s worth at a time — less for bajra in summer.
Adapted from FSSAI, Shree Anna (Millets) Recipes, PDF p. 124 (printed p. 110), written in our own words.