Naan Khatai

These indian sweets are super flacky and crumbly perfect for tea time. Very easy to make. It is similar to shortbread flavoured with cardamom and melts away in your mouth.

TIP –

• Please do not cut back on butter/ghee for this recipe. Fat is the backbone of this recipe. The below picture nankhtais were baked with 3/4 cup of butter and that resulted in flaky and crumbly nankhatais.

Place the dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to an hour. Why chill the cookie dough? The answer is simple – chilling solidifies the fat in the cookies which results into flaky cookies. So when we bake these chilled cookies, the solidified fat takes time to melt and during baking whatever steam is released it puffs up the dough and the cookie spreads out less and becomes flaky. And if we start baking the dough without chilling, the fat will melt right away resulting into spread out flat and greasy cookies.

INGREDIENTS

• Ghee / Indian Clarified butter - 1 cup ( use regular butter if not available )

• Powdered sugar - 1 cup ( sifted )

• Cardamom powder - 1 tsp

• Besan / Chickpea flour - ½ cup

• Maida / All purpose flour - 1 and ¾ cups

• Semolina - 1/4 cup

• Pinch of salt

• Baking soda -1/4 tsp

• Baking powder -1/4 tsp

• Almonds - 5-6 for garnishing

• pistachios - 5-6 for garnishing

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Sift besan , maida, semolina, salt, cardamom powder, baking powder and baking soda.

2. Whisk ghee and powdered sugar till light and fluffy. ( Approx 2-3 minutes on high speed )

3. Add the dry mixture in 2-3 batches and fold gently. (rub the flour into the ghee mixture and mix until everything gets in together and form a dough).

4. Refrigerate the dough for 20 minutes.

5. Divide the dough into 20-24 parts and make rounds.

6. Press the rounds gently and put some chopped almonds on top.

7. place the cookies on a tray, Cover the tray with a cling wrap and refrigerate the cookies for 15 minutes.

8. Pre heat the oven to 175 degrees C.

9. Bake for 15-20 minutes, till slightly browned.

10. Remove from oven and cool on a cooling rack.

11. Store in an airtight container for up to a week.

NOTE:These cookies tend to burn very fast, so keep an eye on them while baking. Turn the cookies around and see the base. If it's slightly browned, the cookies are done.

ENJOY :)