Teething cookies and crackers – that was a point when Shreya just stopped eating and I couldn’t understand why. Then the doctor told me it’s because she’s teething. So just give her a piece of toast or give her a Rusk. And I wasn’t going to give her stuff that’s brought from the market, which is full of sugar and God knows what all you know.
So I was like, no way, and I’m going to make something myself. And, you know, she was having her ragi porridge and she just about started rejecting it. So then I decided to use the grain in a cookie. And because we weren’t giving her any sugar and that time I was in Calcutta, so we could easily source Date jaggery.
It’s called Nolene Gur (jaggery) over there and it’s locally available and dates are extremely high in iron. So then I used that jaggery, I made it into a liquid, mixed it with ragi, and put in some almond powder because she’s not going to eat nuts otherwise. Mixed it with white butter and made a dough out of it and then cut it in a way that it looks like a teething cookie.
And that’s how she started eating them and enjoying them. And then I also wanted to introduce greens to her because while she would eat her broccoli, she would definitely not eat her methi and palak. So then I decided to make crackers using oats, ragi, bajra, wheat, whatever else. The idea was that if she’s not eating a certain grain, it has to be made into a cracker or a cookie so that she gets some of it. And till date, the methi and jeera crackers are her favorite.