Simple, practical, and full of everyday flavour, Nankhatai is a vegetarian Indian snack made with all purpose flour or maida, besan or chickpea flour, and sooji or semolina in about 61 minutes. The recipe lays out the ingredients and each cooking step clearly, so you can adjust seasoning, texture, and serving size for your own kitchen.

Recipe Snapshot

  • Prep time: 45 minutes
  • Cook time: 16 minutes
  • Total time: 61 minutes
  • Yield: 20 cookies
  • Category: Snack
  • Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients

  • 1 cup all purpose flour or maida
  • 3/4 cup besan or chickpea flour
  • 1/4 cup sooji or semolina
  • pinch of salt
  • 1/2 cup +2-3 tablespoons ghee or clarified butter (in semi-solid state, should not be melted)
  • 3/4 cup confectioners sugar or powdered sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon cardamom powder (from 7-8 cardamom pods)
  • ½ teaspoon saffron strands (crushed)
  • chopped pistachios (to garnish)
  • chopped almonds (to garnish)
  • 1 tablespoon milk (optional, only use if dough isn't coming together)

Method

  1. In a bowl sieve together flour, besan, sooji and cardamom powder. Add salt and mix till well combined.
  2. Using your stand or hand mixer, mix/cream together ghee with powdered sugar and crushed saffron strands until fuffy.
  3. Add the flour mix (the dry ingredients) and mix.
  4. Mix until it forms a soft and smooth dough. If the dough is not coming together, you may add a tablespoon of milk at this point.
  5. Cling wrap the dough and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
  6. After 30 minutes take the dough out and pinch equal size balls from the dough.
  7. Flatten each balls slightly with your hands and if you want make a criss-cross design on top with a knife. Press some chopped nuts in the center.
  8. Place the baking tray lined with the cookies back in the refrigerator again for 20 minutes. Meanwhile pre-heat the oven to 375 F degrees.
  9. After 20 minutes, take out the baking tray and bake at 375 F degrees for 16-18 minutes or till the bottom of the cookies starts turning light brown in color.
  10. Remove nankhatai from oven and let cool completely.
  11. Store in an airtight container and enjoy!

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.