Traditional Indian eggless cookies known as Nankhatai, made with flour, sugar, cardamoms and ghee. This recipe works with different combinations of flour and turn out light and delicious.
Recipe Snapshot
- Prep time: 10 minutes
- Cook time: 15 minutes
- Total time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 12
- Category: Snack
- Cuisine: Indian
Ingredients
- ¾ cup (75 grams) wheat flour ((or all-purpose flour))
- ¼ cup (25 grams) besan ((gram flour))
- 1 tablespoon semolina (suji (optional))
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder ((or 1 pinch baking soda for 1x recipe))
- 3 green cardamoms (powdered (or ½ tsp powder for 1x recipe))
- ½ cup (65 grams) powdered sugar
- ⅓ cup (75 grams) ghee (or soft butter (use only as needed))
Method
Preparation
- Preheat the oven to 360 F or 180 C at least for 15 mins.
- Prepare a tray with parchment paper. Powder sugar along with cardamom seeds.
- Sieve the flours, semolina, sugar and baking soda together. Set this aside.
- You can also just mix up all of them together and skip sieving. Ensure the baking powder is mixed well.
How to Make Nankhatai
- Pour ghee in parts and bring the flour together to make a stiff dough.
- Use ghee only as needed for mixing. You may need a tsp more or less depending on the temperature where you live. Do not knead the dough.
- Make 12 balls out of the dough. Slightly flatten and press with a fork lightly to make a design.
- Bake exactly for 10 mins. Or until light golden and crisp. The timing may vary depending on many factors - size of your oven, kind of the tray etc.
- Remove to a wire rack immediately. Cool the nankhatai completely and store in an airtight jar. They keep good for 3 weeks.
- Enjoy nankhatai as a snack with milk or tea.
Kiyaan Singh’s Kitchen Note
Keep this recipe as a working base: cook once as written, then adjust spice, texture, and serving style for your own table.