Today, I am sharing with you an easy recipe of Nankhatai or say Indian Cookies which are crispy from outside, tender from inside, melt in your mouth and that too without all-purpose flour and without baking powder or soda.

Related Recipes you may like :

• Bourbon Biscuits
• Digestive Biscuits
• Multigrain Crackers

Though I have made these NanKhatai innumerable times but could never post the recipe as something or the other popped up and this recipe took a back seat. Had it not been for alphabet N today then it might have got delayed further.

This post of Nan Khatai is from alphabet N under BlogChatters A2Z Challenge 2019.

Nankhatai Or The Indian Cookies

Nankhatai or say Indian Cookies have always been my favourite ever since my childhood. Easiest of all cookies, hawkers sold these roaming around in the market. They would bake these in a skillet/pan kept on the hot sand. Even now these are sold this way but the number of such hawkers has reduced considerably as these Nan Khatai have now got a place in big shops selling various kind of cookies.

These Nan Khatai are popular in India as well as Pakistan. In Delhi, you will find a lot of vendors selling Nan Khatai in the area near Jama Masjid. The word Nankhatai is made up of 2 words Naan and khatai. Naan is a Persian word meaning bread, as we all know. And Khatai is actually an Afghan word meaning biscuit. And these Nankhatai are known as Kulcha-e-khataye in Afghanistan and Northeast Iran. You can read more about these here.

Easy Recipe Of NanKahatai

The recipe of Nankhatai is a very simple one and is pretty straight forward. It is made up of refined flour, powdered sugar, clarified butter (ghee), curd and spices like nutmeg, green cardamom. They are very soft and crumbly. However, with time, we have made changes in this by reducing or omitting refined flour. But there is no compromise in the taste.

How easy this recipe is will try to show this with an incident. Once one of my aunt was very impressed with my Nankhatai. And when she shared this with one of our relatives he didn't give it a damn saying Oh nothing great in that, anybody can make Nankhatai as it is the easiest. From then whenever I make these those words definitely echo in my mind. Anyways this was shared just to convince you that these are actually the easiest to make.

Long back I got this recipe (don't remember from where), liked it and noted in my diary. Since then have used this recipe only and have got perfect results. This recipe uses all three flours, namely, All-purpose flour, Gram flour, and Semolina. And with time I have replaced all-purpose flour with wheat flour. As was written in the recipe, the ratio of flours can be easily changed as per liking. But one very important thing that was mentioned in the recipe is the key to make soft and crumbly Nankhatai.

Secret of Making Crisp Nankhatai

And that secret was the method to use clarified butter, that is ghee. It emphasized on melting the ghee first, cool it at room temperature, then freeze it and then beat it. Yes, melt-cool-freeze-beat, this process is very important as this only lends crispiness to these cookies.

Secondly, earlier I used powdered sugar but have now switched to Boora sugar. Boora sugar is a type of unrefined sugar and is available locally.

Now lets see the recipe of making Nankhatai.

Detailed Recipe Of Nankhatai With  Pics

• Take clarified butter. Melt it on medium flame. Let it cool and then keep in the freezer for an hour or so till set.
• Take it out, wait for a few minutes and beat it with an electric beater for 4 to 5 minutes till fluffy.

• Add Boora sugar and beat again for a minute.
• Mix in cardamom powder, curd, and saffron milk.
• Sieve together gram flour, wheat flour, semolina, and salt.
• Add the dry mix of flours into the ghee-sugar mix.
• Just gather everything into a dough. You may feel that the mix would be dry but it will be just appropriate. Do this exercise with your hands rather than a spatula. Still, if the dough doesn't come together and is very crumbly then add little more curd.

• Cover it and keep it in the refrigerator for an hour.
• Start preheating oven at 160 degrees. Use both the rods.
• Line parchment paper on the baking tray. Do not preheat the baking tray.
• Make small balls from the dough, flatten it and keep it on the baking tray.
• Now make a cross on these discs with a butter knife. Alternatively, you can make a dent on it. The choice is yours.
• Brush milk on these for the glaze. Sprinkle cardamom powder and bake.
• Use both the rods while baking and keep the tray in the middle rack.
• Check after 12 minutes and bake further accordingly.
• When golden brown, carefully lift each with a spatula and keep on a wire rack to cool completely.

• Once completely cool, store in an airtight container.
• Serve with love, tea optional.

Baking Nankhatai In Airfryer

• Preheat air fryer at 180 degrees for 5 minutes.
• Take out the basket, keep the crackers in it and return it to the airfryer machine.
• Reduce the temperature to 160 degrees and bake the crackers for 15 minutes approximately.
• No need to flip the crackers in between.
• When the colour changes and sides get golden brown, they are done.

Baking Nankhatai In Kadhai

• Keep a wide kadhai on the gas stove. Lay salt/sand. Keep a stand on it. Ensure that the stand doesn’t have any rubber hooks in the base, else they will melt in the process of baking and spoil your kadhai.
• Cover and preheat for 10 to 15 minutes on medium flame.
• Keep a plate and keep it in the preheated kadhai. Or cover the stand with parchment paper. Choose a plate which can be held with tongs. This is because the kadhai is really hot and it is very difficult to do with hands. Like I used my pie dish for this. You can even use cake pan.
• Cover and bake these on sim gas for 25 to 30 minutes.
• Baking time will also depend on the thickness of your kadhai. Like I used a very thick bottomed kadhai and it took almost 45 minutes. So, do not opt for very heavy bottomed wok.

Recipe Card Of Nankhatai Biscuits

I hope you have liked this easy, yummy and healthy recipe for making Nankhatai and will surely try it out  for your darlings

 

Thank you for reading this post. If you have liked this recipe then do let me know by leaving a comment below. Your feedback fuels my enthusiasm. You may share this post with your dear ones by clicking on the little buttons below. You may follow me on       Facebook   Pinterest    Twitter   Instagram(#samirasrecipediary) too. for latest recipe updates. Thank you!

So, that was alphabet N. Wait n watch what’s in store from O tomorrow.

You can find all my posts for this challenge under #BlogchatterA2Z

Stay tuned…

Stay Fit… Stay Healthy… But most importantly, Stay Happy…

Samira