Gwen Loves Lemon Millet Cookies

I was wandering through the natural foods store today ... and found myself buying millet flour. As soon as I saw it, I was interested. I know millet is good for you, and I like using a variety of different grains in the family diet. The flour was even cheap (as far as organic whole-grain flour goes). And it had a lovely golden-ness to it that charmed me ... I couldn't wait to see what it could do.


Of course, having no experience with millet flour I had to look to the internet for advice. A couple of basics I learned there:
Millet has lots of B-vitamins.
It's gluten-free, so you have to use it in conjunction with wheat for leavened breads.
People don't seem to use it very much in recipes.
It's a drought resistant crop  (which makes me wonder why it's not more common in Australia?)


Anyway, my first baking attempt with millet flour was a success. Let me tell you - and after 5 cookies and a few bits of dough I can attest to this - you're gonna like this recipe! My friend Gwen even reckons it's her fave homemade cookie ... and she's got good taste ...

The golden ones

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Gwen Loves Lemon Millet Cookies

Makes 5-6 dozen

Ingredients
250g softened organic butter
1 c raw sugar
1/2 c unrefined brown sugar
2 organic eggs
1 1/2 c unbleached plain flour
3/4 c millet flour
1/2 c wholemeal flour
1 tsp baking soda
zest of 2 lemons
juice of 1 lemon

* As always, try to use organic ingredients when you can. Give millet flour a try - at my local shop it's cheaper than organic wholemeal flour!

1. Preheat the oven to 180C (375F). Line cooking sheets with baking paper (if needed).

2. Using a hand mixer, mix the softened butter and sugars until creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing only until they're combined.

3. Add the rest of the ingredients, and stir with a spatula or spoon until everything is uniformly mixed.

4. Roll the dough into 2.5 cm (1 in) balls and line them up on the cookie sheet, with at least 2.5 cm between them. Use a fork to slightly flatten the top of each*.

*If the dough is sticking to your hands, and not rolling easily in your palms - give it a rest. Cover the bowl and pop it into the fridge for 30 min. Then try again.

5. Bake in the preheated oven for about 12 min, until the cookies are nice and golden and aren't completely squishy when you touch them. Take the cookies out of the oven and let them cool on the baking sheet for about 10 min, before transferring them to a wire rack.

These will keep in an airtight container for 5-7 days ... or you can freeze them!

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How much did this cost me?

I used all organic ingredients in my mega-batch. Which by the way, we ate + gave to my friend with the new baby + fed to Robbie's hungry lab-members. The butter costs $5, the sugar $1, the eggs $0.50 each. The plain flour was about $0.60, the wholemeal was about $0.30, and the millet flour was about $0.40. The lemons were $0.30 - bought them from another parent at my Nelle's kindy. So my mega-batch cost ... $8.60. Which is about $0.12-ish per cookie. Thrifty! Healthy! Easy Peasy!

I hope you enjoy these,

Amanda xx