Diwali Nankhatai

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 Nankhatai was a favorite but was not made very often in our home. Mother had this electric round oven which has a glass top & whenever she'd bake these goodies the whole house would smell awesomely of ghee & we'd be drooling till the Nankhatais were cooler so we could dig in. 





I remember, baking Nankhatai took preparation. Mother would order extra "Maida" than what we usually had on hand. She's order extra Ghee too. Mostly they were plain nankhatais but sometimes (if I remember correctly) she'd use cashews. So, yes.. She'd get things ready & on a lazy Sunday afternoon she'd bake them.

Nankhatai is a cookie. It is made using all purpose flour, sugar & some dry fruit or nut. This particular recipe is a slight twist & is inspired by many many recipes that I watched on YouTube. The cookies turned out to be perfectly baked & awesomely crispy yet soggy.. just what a Nankhatai should be like. 

So here goes..My recipe for Nankhatai.. For this Diwali.. Remembering home.. Remembering the glass top electric round oven.. Remembering mother's recipe.. and making my own...

What I used

  • 1.5 cups all purpose flour (Maida)
  • 1.2 cup gram flour (Besan) - I used the fine ground kind. Coarse ground will not work
  • 1 cup powdered sugar (I didn't have powdered so I took a cup of regular granulated sugar & dry ground it in the grinder & then used 1 cup of it)
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1.4 tsp baking soda
  • Cardamom powder (per taste) I used about 1 tsp
  • 3/4 cup melted ghee +  some more (So basically I melted 1 cup of ghee & used 3/4 cup of it & then some more may be a tbsp or two)
  • Chopped Almonds - About 1/3 cup
  • Whole almonds for garnish (As many as cookies you make)

Process

  • Pre-heat the oven at 300 F
  • Lay a parchment paper on a Baking sheet (very important)
  • Make a soft dough using Maida + Besan + Sugar + Baking Powder + Baking Soda + Baking Soda + 3/4 cups ghee (I added additional 1 or tbsp ghee because the dough was not coming together)
  • Then add in the chopped almonds & mix them all together
  • Make small cookie balls
  • Lay them on the baking sheet
  • Garnish each cookie with 1 whole almond
  • Bake the cookies on 300F for 45 minutes (My oven is the regular GE wall oven which comes with every house in the US). I checked the cookies to be browning even 15mins. At the end of 45th minute they were perfectly brown. 
  • Enjoy with hot tea.


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