Thekua Recipe

Thekua is a crunchy and mildly sweet cookie , very popular and a traditional dish from Indian states of Bihar and Jharkhand.  Thekua or also spelt Thokwa is a revered prasad (offering to God) in the Chhath Puja, Saraswati Puja and on festive occasions. It has been used as a loved sweet snack for centuries in these places.

Traditionally Thekua is a deep fried snack , made using wheat flour , sugar and ghee. To cut down the calories and to make it a healthy and guilt free affair, i have baked these cookies instead of deep frying and used jaggery in place of sugar. These mildly sweet ,whole wheat flour cookies make a perfect tea time snack. I have not used baking powder or baking soda in this recipe. They are crunchy and hard at the edges and soft in the center. Thekua have a good shelf life and a preferred snack during long journeys. I have used fennel seeds and cardamom powder to flavor them.

Special wooden molds (saancha) are used to make an imprint on Thekua. Small portion of dough is taken and pressed on thekua mold to get beautiful imprints on them. I did not have such wooden mold, so i have made a simple design on the cookie dough balls, using toothpick, before baking them.

For this month on Facebook group,  Shhhhh Cooking Secretly Challenge , we food bloggers had to cook dishes from Jharkhand Cuisine. In this monthly event, bloggers are grouped in pairs and each pair exchanges a set of secret ingredients using which we have to cook the dish of that particular cuisine. The other group members take chance in guessing the secret ingredients just by looking at the picture of the dish. For this month , my partner was Shobha Keshwani di, who is a talented food blogger and shares her culinary journey on her blog Shobhasfoodmazaa. Do check pit her space for some interesting recipes. She gave me whole wheat flour and Jaggery as my secret ingredients and i baked these delicious thekua cookies using them. In return , i gave her gram flour and cumin seeds and she made a lip smacking Besan-ki-machli curry from Jharkhand cuisine.

                                            

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 12-15 minutes

Serves: 1 dozen 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup jaggery powder
• 1/4 cup ghee
• 2 tablespoon suji / Semolina
• 1 tablespoon desiccated coconut
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon cardamom powder

  Method:

1. Take jaggery in a pan . Add 2 tablespoon water to it and heat the pan. Once the jaggery melts and starts bubbling, put off the flame. Strain the jaggery syrup and keep to cool down until use.

                                       
2.  In a mixing bowl, take whole wheat flour Add suji, desiccated coconut, fennel seeds and cardamom powder. Blend all the ingredients using a spatula.

 3.  Add ghee to this flour mix and work with finger tips to get a bread crumb like texture.

4.  To this add the strained jaggery syrup and mix well. Using little water , knead the flour into a dough. I required less than a tablespoon water to gather the flour into a dough.

5.  Preheat the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes. Meanwhile we will shape the thekua dough. For that pinch small portion of the dough and roll between the palms and flatten slightly. Place all the dough balls on a baking tray. Now if you wish to decorate the thekua, just make criss -cross impressions on each cookie dough using a toothpick.

6. Bake the thekua at 180 degree Celsius in a preheated oven for 12 - 15 minutes. Keep a watch after 10 minutes as temperature differs from oven to oven.

  7. Allow the thekua to cool down completely on a wire rack, before transferring it to an air tight container. Serve thekua as a tea time snack or as a sweet treat during any time of the day.

 Recipe Notes:

• I have not added baking powder to the thekua dough. You may add if you prefer it.
• Traditionally thekua are deep fried, i have baked the cookies, to cut down the calories.
• The cookies are mildly sweet as my family prefers, you may increase the amount of sweetener if required.

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For more cookie recipes check out the following posts fro m my blog

• Strawberry Cookies

                                    

• Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies

                                    

• Healthy Gingerbread Cookies

                                    

• Beetroot Oats Cookies

                                   

• Coconut Cookies using Stevia