Have you ever noticed the hawkers selling warm nan khatais by roadsides? Some even bake them in their custom-made ovens(modified oil tin canisters). Their roadside baking and delicious earthy smell of dough rising from the odd ovens pull visitors to buy some. I have always been fascinated by this rustic/desi style of baking and wanted to try these traditional Indian cookies that originated in Surat dated back to the 16th century.
Although I wanted to bake them someday or the other, and the decision was built up when Meenu Goyal(one of the co-passengers while traveling to Vadodara) gave me some nan khatai cookies baked by her. Those were wonderfully crisp and melt-in-mouth that I can still feel the taste. This recipe is a sincere try to hers. Thanks a lot, Meenu for sharing such an amazing recipe with me. The nan khatai recipe requires ghee or clarified butter( hope weight watchers and digestive biscuit lovers will spare me 😉)
A dough is prepared by adding ghee to the 3 types of flours and then baked till perfection. Let’s try out one of the most common yet delicious cookies recipes now.
Prep time – 10 min Baking time – 25-30 min Cuisine – Indian
Yields – 20-25 nos(depends on the size you need) Author – Bharti Dhawan
All You Need
• Ghee/ clarified butter(at room temperature) – 1/2 cup or 100 gms
• Powered Sugar – 1 cup/100 gms
• Besan/ gram flour – 1 cup or 100 gms
• Maida/ all purpose flour – 1/2 cup or 50 gms
• Sooji/ fine semolina – 1/2 cup or 70 gms
• Baking soda – 1 tsp
• Green cardamom/ ilaychi powder – 1 tsp
• Finely chopped pistachios or almonds – 1 tbsp(for garnishing)
STEP BY STEP
1- Take a mixing bowl and mix 3 flours and baking soda. Mix everything well with your hands and set it aside to use later
2- Take out the seeds of green cardamom/ilayachi and pound coarsely
3- Now take a broad bowl and add ghee and sugar. Whisk with an electric beater for 10 minutes
* If an electric beater is not available, the hand whisk will do the same with double-time taking. The mixing of ghee and sugar can be done with hands too to spend 30 minutes for the creamy consistency
4- When the mix becomes creamy white, fluffy and light in texture, add flours and cardamom powder
5-Â Mix everything with hands or spatula to make a dough. Don’t knead, just combine it. If you feel it is too greasy add a little more flour. You can refrigerate the dough for 10 minutes before shaping into balls
6-Â Make balls of equal size and flatten a little between your palms. Mark a criss-cross sign in the center with a sharp knife and stick some chopped nuts on top
7- place them on a baking tray a little far apart to bake for 25-30 minutes at 180°C in a preheated oven. You should keep an eye on while baking as baking time varies from oven to oven
Notes
1- These cookies can be baked without an oven in a flat-based heavy pan or kadahi. For this add 400g salt to the pan. Keep a stand or plate over it followed by a thick paper(kitchen tissues)
2- Heat the pan at high flame for 2 minutes first then bringing down by simmering. Place cookies in a greased
