Roasted Millet and Peanut Cookies

These roasted millet and peanut cookies are full of warm, nutty and cozy flavours. It is a cookie that puts together some of my favourite ingredients and showcases a popular Ghanaian cooking process.

Everyone should be roasting their grains.

My flavour of the year has been roasted grains. Millet, corn, beans, and many more are roasted to expand the cooking options and boost the aroma. We roast many grains and legumes for drinks, porridge, and even pottages. Each grain or legume has a distinct flavour when roasted but the nutty undernotes are clear across ingredients.

Inspiration for these cookies.

What you will need for these roasted millet and peanut cookies.

• Millet: You can use millet or sorghum for this recipe. Bob’s Red Mill sells sorghum flour. You can also purchase millet and sorghum flour from your local Indian store. The popular varieties indigenous to Ghana are called pearl millets (which are sold as bajri/bajra in Indian stores). Sorghum is sold as jowar. You could also use regular yellow millet flour.
• Butter: I use a vegan-friendly butter for my recipes. Make sure the butter is soft and at room temperature.
• Peanut Butter: Most of the fat and flavour come from peanuts. In Ghana, we only eat 100% natural peanut butter so that is what I am using for this recipe. If you are allergic to peanuts, you can use another nut or seed butter.
• Sugar: For this recipe, we are using a combination of white and brown sugar. These offer sweetness and also provide the perfect texture.
• Unsweetened Apple Sauce: I use this as an egg replacer for extra moisture.
• Plant-Based Milk: The cookie dough is on the drier side, which helps to bind and hydrate everything.
• Flour: This recipe is made with all-purpose flour; the extra gluten can help absorb all the fat from the butter and peanut butter
  • For gluten-free baking, I recommend using a 1-to-1 substitution. Some gluten-free flours are less absorbent, so feel free to add an additional 1-2 tablespoons of flour to get the dough to come together as a ball.
• Baking Soda and Baking Powder: These levelling agents make the cookie lighter and fluffier.
• Vanilla Essence (optional): for extra flavour
• Salt: Salt helps to bring out flavour and balance out the sweetness.

How to roast your grain flours

It is very common to use the oven to roast nuts and seeds because it is largely hands-off, but in Ghana, we usually roast these grains on the stove, one at a time. It might seem a bit time-consuming, but it offers a lot of control in the cooking process. You just need 10-15 minutes for this.

1. The cooking utensil of choice is a stainless steel pot. You can use any metal cooking utensil. The most important thing is that it does not stick to the pot. Stainless steel maintains heat well and evenly distributes it. Use whatever you have available.
2. Pour the quantity of flour you are going to roast and keep the pot at medium-high. Stir it semi-constantly so the bottom doesn’t burn.
3. As the flour is roasting, steam will evaporate because we are cooking it. You will also start to see that the bottom of the flour is starting to turn brown. Reduce the heat to low and continue stirring for about 2-3 minutes.
4. When you see that there are more brown spots, take the pan off the heat. Give everything a good stir, and pour your flour into a bowl. The flour can burn easily, so do not delay. The flour will continue to darken as it cools due to residual heat.
5. Allow the flour to cool completely before baking with it. If you stick it in the fridge, it should take 15-20 minutes. Use this time to weigh and measure out the rest of your ingredients.

How to make roasted millet and peanut cookies.

• Combine the peanut butter with the plant-based butter till smooth
• Add the sugar and combine. Then add the apple sauce and a tablespoon of plant-based milk.

• Mix in the dry ingredients and combine till you get a ball. You might need an extra tablespoon of plant-based milk.
• Portion out golf ball-sized cookies and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper

• Flatten out the cookies and use a fork for a grid design
• Bake at 350°F for 12 minutes
• Allow the cookies to cool down fully before enjoying them.

Storage

Storing baked cookies. These cookies stay fresh for a few days at room temperature. After which they can become stale. To avoid this, you can place them in an airtight container and put them in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Freezing raw cookie dough. You can freeze cookies at many stages of making it. Once your raw cookie dough has come together, you can wrap it in plastic wrap before freezing. To bake, just thaw on your counter then proceed with the cooking instructions.

Freezing baked cookies. Once baked and cooled, you can freeze the cookies for several weeks. To enjoy these frozen cookies, allow them to thaw on the counter or microwave for up to 30 seconds for a faster thawing process.

Check out the rest of the Christmas Cookies

• Double Chocolate Teff Cookies (instead of teff, I used millet)
• Grains of Paradise Orange Cookie
• Moringa Lemon Cookies
• Dawa Dawa Chocolate Cookie
• Spiced Tamarind Sandwich Cookie