Delicious Ayurvedic inspired cookies

The festive season is approaching and this means lots of delicious treats in the making. These Ayurvedic inspired cookies are not necessarily the sweetest because as most of you know, most of my recipes have no added sugar. But to give them a sweeter taste, I used dates and cinnamon. And for a dessert type aroma, I used cardamon.

Dates are considered a sattvic food in Ayurveda as they are said to be nourishing and to give a sense of calm and joyfulness. Although they can be quite heavy in quality, in moderation they are suitable for all three doshas.

Cinnamon is another key ingredient in Ayurvedic cooking. It is used to to bring the warmth quality and sweetness to any dish or beverage, as well as the delicious aroma it offers. Cardamon, is another highly regarded Ayurvedic spice because it helps with digestion and gives a beautiful taste of sweetness. This is one of my favourite spices and I use it almost daily.

For these cookies I used millet flour. For me, it is a great gluten-free alternative to general flour as I find it the easiest to bake with and also I enjoy the taste of it. But of course you can use others and there are many gluten-free flour options available out there.

I soaked the dates and goji berries overnight, although 3-4 hours can be enough time. I also added to the cookie dough mix some of the water from the soaked dates which turns into a delicious, quite sweet and thick syrup like liquid.

The below quantity made 7 cookies, but I made mine quite big and thick because I wanted to avoid any possibility of them turning out to be quite dry. When shaping the cookie dough into circles, it looks a little bit like a burger patty, especially with the goji berries. But once they are baked, they look and taste wonderful.

Enjoy them with a cup of warm tea or hot chocolate. I had mine warm with a delicious cup of rose petal tea and it was a tasty experience.

Ingredients:
200 gr millet flour
10 pitted dates (soaked)
2 tbsp of goji berries (soaked)
1 tbsp raw cacao
30 gr cinnamon powder
20 gr cardamon powder
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp coconut oil
30ml of dates syrup (from the soaked dates)

Preparation:
Make sure that your dates and goji berries are soaked for at least 3-4 hours. I usually soak mine overnight.
In a bowl, add the flour and all the other powders together and mix them with a spoon.
Gently mash the dates making sure they are quite mushy and soft.
Add to the bowl the goji berries and mix well.
The add the dates and stir everything together.
Add 30 ml of dates syrup and again stir the ingredients well.
At this point, the dough will become more solid but still quite soft so make sure you mix everything well and all flour, spices and baking powder are absorbed.
Finally, add the coconut oil.

The dough is quite soft, although you can still use a rolling pin to gently to spread it evenly. Choose the shape of the cookies you want and make the cut outs.

I sprinkled some shredded coconut on top, but it can also be without. I just love coconut taste so usually I add it when I can.

Bake at 180C degrees for about 15-20 minutes.