Nankhatai or Indian Cookie

This one form of cookie is purely Desi and egg less  From my childhood memories I recall this name Nankhatai as those soft biscuits in glass tumblers, available at local grocery stores.

Nankhatai to be precise is one of a traditional Pakistani biscuits, but it also has roots in Indian cuisine where it has semolina (sooji) as one of its ingredients.
My husband has cravings for sweets after dinner and this evening we were done with the custards, jalebis and sweets. I thought of one easy sweet with readily available ingredients at home. Moreover they had to be eggless as I was religiously following Mandala Kaalam. So here I am with Nankhatais

I used microwave oven with convection but people used to do it on pan earlier. So here you go


INGREDIENTS I  USED:

1. ALL PURPOSE FLOUR ( MAIDA) -  1 cup

2. GRAM FLOUR (BESAN) -  1/2 cup

3. SEMOLINA (SOOJI) -  1/3 cup

4. CONFECTIONERS SUGAR -  1 cup

5. GHEE -  1 cup

6. CARDAMOMS -  6-10 pods

7. BAKING POWDER -  1 tsp.

8. CASHEWS-  A Handful, slit half vertically for topping

(Do not alter the above ingredients, I tried increasing the amount of Ghee and it turned my cookies into really soft and breakable)

PROCEDURE:

   A: Preparing the Dough

1. Powder your Sugar nicely and melt Ghee on low flame

2. Mix the powdered Sugar and melted Ghee in a vessel and whisk the mixture into a paste

3. Sift Maida, Besan, and Sooji and mix them well

4. Crush the Cardamoms, along with the Baking Powder mix well in the above mixture

5. Now add the Sugar Ghee paste and kneed the dough (it turns crumbly so don't confuse with a chapatti dough)

Set aside this dough for 10-15 minutes and meanwhile you can prepare your toppings and Baking tray

    B: Baking Nankhatais

1. Grease a baking sheet with vegetable oil. You can sift some flour over or use parchment paper. I didn't
get a parchment paper in Delhi so I had to go with the previous option

2. Roll 1 1/2" balls from the dough and put one cashew on the head of each ball

3. Place the balls with 1" gap between each, on the greased sheet and press down from the cashew top and flatten a little

(You can press them down a little more)

( TIP : you can put the cashews after flattening the balls if you don't want the cashews to dig in because the cookies will rise up )

4. Preheat your microwave under 200 degree Celsius

5. Start baking under 180 degree Celsius for 10 minutes

6. Check if your Nankhatais are done and if not, put them back again for 5-8 minutes more, or until they start turning golden from the top.

7. Take out your sheet and let it cool down and remove the cookies neatly

Store them in an air tight containers

These Nankhatais are good for 2 months if kept in air tight containers

My nankhatais turned really yummy, and my set of cookies were gone the same night itlself, so you can expect the same ;)

Fill your house with the Cookies' aroma and start baking