Oatmeal and millet flour cookies with dark chocolate and walnuts

We all know that the banana tree is the epitome of generosity. Not only were we rewarded with a bounty of fruit from our tree but also from several others at the homes of friends and family. After sharing much of the produce largely with those less fortunate than us , I decided to explore options of using this amazing ingredient in recipes that would give me the ‘happy mommy vibes’ of having sneaked in bananas to my brats who term it their “least favourite fruit” !!! Do not ask me why for I know not ! It baffles the hell out of me and I’ve given up trying to figure out what I did wrong (Sighhhh)

Anyways , there I was thumbing through the many many MANY cookbooks gifted to me over the years by my mother  (who thinks that I must have every cookbook ever written on this planet 😉 ) ,looking for a banana cookie recipe. The reasons I was looking for such a recipe is because a friend of a friend makes these amazing chocolate crinkle cookies in which she uses the banana as apparently a main ingredient. And no (before you ask ) I cannot ask her because she makes them on a commercial scale. Unless she agreed to use my fruit in exchange for her cookies ..Hah ! Unlikely proposition that !

So ! I did finally find a recipe in an old cookbook which did highlight on the banana in the title . I excitedly went through the recipe and at last did manage to spot 1 banana in the list of ingredients….Hmmmmm…if I ever needed the smirk emoji,it was at that exact moment !!!! However the recipe did appeal in other ways. I had this big slab of Regal cooking chocolate that I was waiting to put to good use. Quite proud of our local entrepreneurs and all of that .This recipe seemed perfect to satisfy the 4 pm munch monsters. While the original version did ask for milk chocolate , we as a family love the taste of good quality dark chocolate and so this was just perfect.

I did try to sneak in more than 1 banana given the difference in size from the Indian fruit to it’s western counterparts but I decided against it just at the last second before the fruit slid into the rest of the batter…. fearing the terror these young ones unleash on me if discovered sneaking an extra banana in (SHUDDER) 😉  …. just kidding but I do constantly look for ways to give them their daily potassium fix , for as long as I’m responsible for what goes into keeping them fighting fit ! (pun intended :p )

I did however manage to make it low on gluten by substituting and slightly altering the quantity of millet flour to all purpose flour. There is a bit of gluten in the baking powder but nothing more other than that.The organic walnuts and millet flour from Bio basics works remarkably well in this recipe as does the tree to bar chocolate from Pollachi. So , this is one cookie that made me really happy in terms of health , source of ingredients and of course great taste.

I would like to urge all my readers to make an effort into sourcing their ingredients with more awareness. It’s not the cake or the cookie that does the damage ,it’s what goes into it which really matters. And no matter how busy your lives are ,at the end of the day ,it’s not gonna work if you aren’t doing your best to nurture your health. It’s all very well to say no to sweets , to fried food , to carbs…. but what about the foods that you do eat ? Look closer….you will find that you could be eating stuff that could actually be more harmful than good. Believe me , the change is not hard. As with most things it’s the will. Once you make up your mind , the options towards healthy eating are endless ,not to mention just as lip smackingly scrumptious ! 🙂

P.S. Yes the banana bits were spotted , chuckled over that “amma will go to any lengths to get us to eat a banana” and the chomping of the cookies continued without further pause ! I on the other hand feigned temporary hearing loss and complete ignorance on what they meant 😀 😀