I know this sounds like the title of a Bollywood movie but this is in fact a recipe that I have been meaning to blog for a while. This is an heirloom recipe passed down from my husband's grandmother to his mother and now to me. Mann are unleavened cookies made with the choice of whole wheat/white/chickpea flour and dry baked on a griddle. They can be sweetened with sugar or jaggery and other flavors can be added to them.

This recipe is the most familiar one to me and is made with a combination of whole wheat flour and jaggery. Whole wheat flour that we use here is also called Atta, found in Indian grocery stores and is different from the namesake found in US Departmental stores. From experience it seems to me that the only difference is in the gluten content of the two flours, the Indian flour having less gluten than its American counterpart. I am not sure if the variety of wheat used to prepare these flours has an impact on the final product and would love to know if anyone can shed more light on the same.

As a change to the original recipe, I will be using oil as the fat instead of Ghee/Butter/shortening purely for health reasons. I will however mention that this does produce a slightly different texture. For a very authentic experience, substitute any other fat in the same proportion. Depending on the liquid content of the fat, you may have to adjust the amount of water in the recipe.

Also, jaggery has been mentioned in a weight measure instead of volume because it is very hard to find this product in consistent volume measures. It is usually available in lumps which are hard to crush/break down and can only be used after being dissolved in a little water over heat.

Ingredients:

Atta (Indian whole wheat flour) - 4 cups

Unflavoured oil - 3/4 cup

Jaggery - 350 gms

Saunf (Fennel Seeds) - 1 tablespoon

Whole dry coconut (cut into thin 1/3 inch pieces) - 1/4 cup

Method:

1. If possible, break the jaggery into smaller lumps. In a saucepan, add 1/8 cup water and the jaggery and heat over medium heat till the jaggery melts. Let it cool.

2. Combine the flour, saunf/fennel and coconut pieces in a large bowl and mix well.

3. Add the oil and try to combine all the flour and oil with your hands, ensuring to mix well. If using another form of fat in the recipe, cut the fat into the flour using a food processor/pastry blade.

4. Then add the melted jaggery and combine well to make a very stiff dough. Depending on the type of flour/humidity/jaggery, a little bit of water might need to be added to pull the dough together. Alternatively, you may have to add some more flour to make the dough stiffer.

5. Shape the dough into small balls, about an inch in diameter and flatten them with a rolling pin/ back of a cup measure to get even sized discs about 1/3 of an inch thick.

6. After all the dough has been shaped and rolled, heat a non stick pan over low heat and cook these discs on both sides till they feel cooked through the center. This may take about 15 - 20 minutes per batch.

7. Cool and store in an airtight container at room temperature.

PS: These will harden upon cooling and that is the expected texture.