Nankhatai’s are sweet and crumbly eggless Indian flavoured cookies prepared specially for Diwali. But you don’t need to wait until Diwali to enjoy these cookies, they can be prepared and relished throughout the year with hot cup of tea.

Nankhatai’s are prepared using maida or plain flour and flavoured with cardamom. I like to use 50-50 % proportion of plain & wheat flour in my nankhatai. I also like to add besan and semolina while making nankhatai dough. Besan gives slight nutty flavour and semolina makes it crumbly. Recipe of Nankhatai is super easy, simple and can be prepared under 60 minutes. These Indian flavoured cookies are so soft and crispy that they literally melt in your mouth. Try this recipe of Nankhatai and you’ll love them with hot cup of tea or coffee.

Ingredients:

1 cup ghee/clarified butter

1 cup castor/powdered sugar

1/2 cup plain flour

1/2 cup wheat flour

1/4 cup besan/chickpea flour

1/4 cup semolina

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp cardamom powder

Pinch of salt

Dry fruits (optional)

Method:

Start with mixing ghee and sugar in a bowl. Always use ghee and sugar in same proportion. Do not melt the ghee, it should be granular (refer first image for ghee texture). If ghee is melted then dough will be too soft and difficult to handle. Whisk ghee and sugar together until it is light, fluffy and extremely pale in colour. This is an important step which gives lovely texture to cookies.

Next, mix together all dry ingredients and add them with ghee & sugar mixture. Make a dough using dry and wet ingredients. I have used here plain & wheat flour along with besan & semolina but you can make these cookies using only plain flour. I like the slight nutty flavour with crispy texture, so love to add other ingredients as well. Also, add a pinch of salt as it enhances sweetness and that’s why little salt is always better for any sweet dish.

Chill this dough in a fridge for 15-20 minutes. As we have used clarified butter in the dough, it might gets melt. And then it will be difficult to handle it, so it’s a good idea to chill them for a while. It will be firm and then you can shape them.

While dough is chilling in the fridge, pre-heat the oven at 180 degrees.

Make small balls of dough and place them on the cookie sheet. You can use tablespoon to measure or just eyeball the size. Use butter paper underneath the cookies or grease the sheet with some ghee.

No need to flatten these balls, they’ll automatically flattened after baking. I have place chopped pista on top of it. You can use any dry fruits or rose petals as per your choice. Bake them in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes. Just keep an eye on them while baking to ensure it won’t get burnt.

In 17-18 minutes Nankhatai’s will be ready. You can see some cracks and they’ll turn slightly golden brown in colour. I love these cracks; it’s indication that your cookies are perfectly cooked.

Once out of the oven, do not touch them and let them cool down completely. Once cooled you can transfer it to storage container. You need to handle it very carefully as these cookies are soft and crumbly.

As we have used cardamom powder to flavour these nankhatai’s, similarly any other flavours like vanila, chocolate etc can be used. Garnish it with some dry fruits of your choice. A perfect companion for your evening tea.

Thanks for reading and I hope you love this recipe. Let me know incase of any feedback in the comments.