Who would have thought that the humble Jackfruit would rightfully earn its place back as a superfood? Sadly, we needed diabetes and other lifestyle diseases to know the importance of the fruit that is indigenous to the land of Kerala. It is uniquely good in every possible way. It contains a good amount of dietary fiber, minerals, vitamins and is free from saturated fats. And what’s more?! The fruit has lesser calories too.
Today, we are going to explore a way in which we can include this superfood into some confectionaries. We are going to prepare some super-delicious cookies with jackfruit flour. We promise both you and your children are going to love it. Not only does the jackfruit powder add flavor to the cookie but will not affect the pleasant taste. The cookies are going to be inspired by the flavor profile of Kerala cuisine, so you can expect the goodness of coconut and cardamom! Once you make them we bet you can’t stop munching on them. But before we go into the making let us explain what exactly the jackfruit powder is.
How to make Jackfruit powder at home?
We know many of you are wondering about it. ‘Is it the seeds? Or is it the pod or some other part of the jackfruit?’ Well, you can put your doubts to rest.
Evidently, as you have guessed, jackfruit powder is a powder or flour made from jackfruits. But there’s a catch. To make this powder, you specifically need unripe jackfruits. If you get your hands on some unripe jackfruits, the making of this powder is not that hard. Let’s see how you can make it at home.
- So, firstly get an unripe jackfruit and cut it open. Clean it by removing its rinds, rags, and other unwanted parts. Now carefully remove the pods from the fruit and then deseed them.
- Once you extract and deseed the pod, you can clean it once more. Then, cut into small fine strips.
- Clean the strips and keep them outside for sun-drying. Make sure that the place you choose receives an ample amount of sunlight so that your strips get done within a few days’ time. Usually, you can get perfectly sundried strips in 3-4 days.
- Once the jackfruit strips are dry enough, you can grind them into a fine powder using a mixing jar.
And there you go! Your homemade jackfruit powder is all set to be used in your diet. However, make sure you store it in a nice airtight container and also do keep the container in the fridge. If you store it outside, the jackfruit powder can become stale.
Now, let’s talk about the star of the show, our cookies.
Jackfruit Flour Cookie – The Recipe
Ingredients needed
- 1.5 cups of whole wheat flour
- Half a cup of jackfruit flour
- 3/4 – 1cup of cane sugar (as per your taste)
- 120-150gms of butter (unsalted; make sure that it is softened at room temperature)
- 1 tsp of vanilla extract
- 1/2 – 3/4 tsp of cardamom ( best advised to use it in the powdered form)
- 1/2 – 3/4 cup of freshly grated coconut
- Milk as per the requirement
Preparation of Jackfruit Flour Cookie
Since we covered all the ingredients, let us get straight into the preparation of jackfruit flour cookies.
- Firstly, you will have to preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Now, line the baking sheet with parchment paper. You can also use a silicone baking mat if you want.
- Now, let’s get to the making of the dough. Take a big mixing bowl. Pop the butter and sugar into it. Then, beat it nicely until the mixture forms a light and creamy consistency. You can do this process either by hand or use a hand mixer. It’s your call. Both work perfectly though.
- Now, add the vanilla extract and powdered cardamom to the mix and blend well. After which you can add the whole wheat flour, along with the jackfruit flour and grated coconut. Combine all the ingredients until they are mixed really well.
- Now, start mixing the ingredients together to form a soft dough. You can add some milk to bind the dough together. Do not add milk at one go. Add little by little until the dough is formed. Also, use the milk only if required.
- Now, once the dough is kneaded, you can chill it in the refrigerator for 10 to 15 minutes.
- After 15 minutes, take the cookie dough out of the refrigerator and start making small balls out of it. Now, shape the balls the way you want. You can even use a cookie cutter for the purpose.
- Now, arrange the dough on the baking sheet. While arranging make sure you keep enough space between each cookie so that they have ample space to spread and rise.
- Bake for about 10-12 minutes. The time actually depends on the oven. You can even wait till the edges turn a light golden brown and then take it out of the oven.
- When you take out of the oven, the cookies might still seem a bit soft, but there’s nothing to worry about. They harden up during the cooling process.
- You can transfer the cookies to a wire rack and keep it for cooling.
Once that’s done, Voila! Your cookies are good to go in that tummy! Also, don’t forget to store the excess in an airtight container.
This cookie is not only delicious but quite healthy because of the jackfruit powder we used. Jackfruit contains simple sugars like fructose and sucrose, which are easily digestible. So, you don’t have to worry about a bloated tummy. Also, we haven’t used any refined sugar in the process. Instead, we used cane sugar which is way healthier than regular sugar, because it does not undergo any processing and is devoid of any chemicals. Now, all these ingredients don’t make it any less tasty. This jackfruit cookie is as tasty and crunchy as any other yummy cookie. Take our word for it, this is the ultimate dessert that can actually be munched on without feeling an ounce of guilt.
