Garri Cookies

In the real world, we consume garri as both a sweet and savoury treat. When consumed sweet, we have it with sugar and roasted peanuts (groundnut) and some people go a lactose coma step further and douse it with milk. I never got the milk thing. A little too unrealistic for me. The garri typically consumed sweet is ijebu garri. In the making of ijebu garri, it is left to ferment a little longer than the savoury garri option, giving it a nice tart flavour from the cassava fermentation. For a savoury option, we have garri with soups and stews as our major carbohydrate source for that meal. A dough-like texture if you’d like and it’s plain enough that it pairs well with all soups and stews. Some regions add a bit of palm oil to the garri when they are dry-frying it and so it gives the color of yellow garri.

When I was thinking of the garri cookies, I thought about it through the lens of sweet to have all types of nuts with it. Pistachios, candied peanuts, almond butter, all the variations that will present familiar for regular consumers. When I used the savoury lens, I thought candied egusi with an iru caramel which by the way mirrors a dark chocolate truffle flavour. Then I thought to myself, the crowd I am creating for may still want this in the simplest form so why go all the way at first try? Fair!! Let’s do simple, you try it and I take you on a journey with me to do crazier things.

Recipe for Garri Cookies

Ingredients

1/3 cup + 1/8 cup Garri

2 Tbsp Potato Starch or Corn Starch

2 Tbsp Sugar

30g Cold Butter

1/8 tsp Baking Powder

1/8 tsp Baking Soda

1 small Egg

Method

In a bowl with the garri, grate in your cold butter and mix till it forms a crumble.

Add your other ingredients in and finally whisk your egg in.

With a smidgen of oil, grease your palms, scoop the mix onto your palm and flatten the cookie and transfer to a baking tray lined with parchment paper. If you want to add toppings like raisins and the likes, this would be the perfect time to do so.

In a pre-heated oven of 120 degrees celsius, place the tray of cookies and bake for 18-22 mins, checking to make sure its a nice light brown color on both sides.

When your garri cookies are baked, place it on a cooling rack and enjoy the gritty crunch.

NB: You can also mill the garri to be finer and sieve before mixing with the butter.