As a child, my brother and I waited eagerly for the old Chachaji who would sell his wonderful baked wares door-to-door. Chachaji would have this well-worn, shiny steel trunk on his head and in this trunk were treasures like Nankhatai, Rusk, Khari, and Kadak Pav. The Chachaji had carefully customized this trunk so that it had layered steel trays in it and each layer had its own set of treasures.
Chachaji would unfailingly ring our door bell (this is if Anand and I were not already out there waiting for him) and wait for Dad to come out and place the order.
My favourites were the variety of Khari biscuits (plain, with jeera, or with sugar) and Nankhatai (plain, with jam, multi-coloured, with a dusting of crushed almonds and pistachios).
If I close my eyes, I can still visualise the fishing out his scales and carefully weighing out his wonderful baked goodies. Indeed, I can imagine the wonderful aromas wafting about!
The other day, I was waiting for my music class to start and in the bakery nearby, I saw many women pitching in to make Nankhatai. Overwhelmed with nostalgia, I made a batch this past weekend and what a treat they turned out to be.
Makes: 15 to 18
Preparation Time: 10 Minutes
Baking Time: 15 Minutes
Ingredients
- Refined Flour or Maida – 1 Cup
- Gram Flour or Besan – 1/4 Cup
- Semolina or Rava – 1/4 Cup
- Sugar – 1 Cup
- Ghee or Butter – 1 Cup
- Cold Milk – 2 or 3 tbsp (if required)
- Green Cardamom or Elaichi – 4
- Baking Soda – 1/4 tsp (optional)
- Almonds – 2
- Cashews – 2
- Pistas – 2
Preparation
- Grease a 12″ baking tray with some ghee.
- Pre-heat the oven to 180°C.
Method
- Sieve together the maida, rava, besan, and baking soda.
- Roughly crush the almonds, cashews and pistas so that they break into small pieces.
- Peel the cardamom.
- Grind the cardamom seeds and sugar together into a fine powder.
- Over low-heat, melt the ghee or butter.
- Take off the heat and let ghee/butter cool to room temperature.
- Add the powdered sugar and cream well.
- Add the dry ingredients and knead into a smooth ball.
- If the dough is powdery, add some milk (1 tsp at a time).
- Divide the dough into 15 to 18 equal small lemon sized balls.
- Press each ball slightly flat and press some dry fruits pieces into the centre.
- Place the nankhatai on the greased tray.
- Bake for 15 to 20 minutes at 180°C.
- Let the Nankhatai cool to room temperature
- Store in an air-tight container
- Enjoy with a cup of hot Adrakwali Chai/Ginger Tea.
Tips
- Do not overheat the ghee or butter. Heat it just enough to melt it.
- I found that if you knead the dough well-enough, you don’t need any additional milk. Remember that the sugar has moisture as well.
- I use a standard 1 tsp measure to scoop out the dough and form dome-shaped Nankhatai.
- The Nankhatai bake really fast. Be careful that they do not burn.
- Do not try to check if the Nankhatai are baked by testing their firmness. They tend to remain soft while baking and harden on cooling.
Aruna! Nan Khatai connects so many of us to good old childhood memories :).
True that!
They look so perfect Aruna 🙂
Yum! My favorite! Make them all the time! Love the story you have of them. Thanks for sharing.
Wow!!! Yummy Aruna….
Thanks! What a useful, delicious recipe to keep on hand. A good friend of my son can’t eat eggs, so this will be a winner.
wow…..lovely salty cookies…..have to try…….. 🙂
Sweet cookies, Jayeeta!
yaa right……..I don’t know why the name ‘Nankhatai’ gives me the feeling that it is salty……but you mentioned about sugar….so obviously it would be a sweet cookie…… I am sorry……. 🙂
No apologies necessary…. There is a salty version also!
superb!!!!
Aruna, you took me right back to my childhood with the tale of chachaji! I loved all those lovely baked goodies too 🙂 These nankhatai look so delicious 🙂
These are such Bambaiya things, na? 🙂
Totally 😀
Wow love Nankhatai and looks perfect Aruna. … 🙂 🙂
Sounds delicious!
wow.. looks yummy:)
wow.. looks yummy 🙂
These look like they would go great with hot cup of tea 🙂
Absolutely!
Inspite of cooking extensively on a daily basis, I hardly make any sweets or namkeens for diwali. All these wonderful recipes of yours.. makes me wanna try 🙂
I looked at the picture, read the recipe and was about to post my comment when I noticed the mention about childhood memories…so I rushed back to read that. Yeah, sometimes around midnight I am half awake to read completely. Memories linked to food are more cherished when we see it or eat that food again.
🙂
What gorgeous cookies, Aruna! I’ve never heard of Nankhatai cookies before, but based on the ingredients and photos alone, I bet I’d love them!
Thanks so much for sharing these beauties for Christmas Cookie Week 2014! So happy to have you on board and to meet a new blog friend!
Thank you, Erin and I am so glad to have discovered your blog as well. This is the best part about blogging, isn’t it?
Thanks, Aruna! It really is the best part of blogging. I love meeting new blogger friends from all over the place, and it’s always so fun to see what everyone brings to the table!