A simple, crunchy but crumbly, sweet, and slightly salty cookie from India. Simple shortbread style cookies from the Indian Cuisine. Pretty easy to make and a beginner baking recipe. Gets ready in about 15 minutes of baking time.
These Indian shortbread cookies are simple, don't take too many ingredients - in fact, they are made with pantry staples.
Orginal Publish Date: MAY 1, 2014. Edited and republished to make it user-friendly and fix formatting issues.
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I have already shared the Oatmeal Cookies which can be made festive and colors of the M & M's can be picked based on the colors of your choice.
Ingredients
- All-purpose flour or Maida
- Granulated Sugar
- Unsalted Butter softened
- Ground Cardamom
- Baking Soda
- Salt
Equipment Needed
- Cookie Tray/Baking Tray
- Large Mixing bowl
- Hand mixer/Wire Whisk/Standalone mixer
- Parchment Paper
- Mortar & pestle
- Measuring cups/spoons/weighing scale
Step By Step Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit or 180 degrees Celsius.
On a cookie tray, spread a baking sheet or parchment paper.
Mix all-purpose flour, baking soda, salt, and ground cardamom in a small bowl using a small wire whisk.
In a large mixing bowl, mix together softened butter and sugar.
Cream the butter and sugar till you cannot feel the sugar granules in the mixture. The time for this step depends on the size of the sugar granules.
Add the flour mixture to the butter-sugar mix.
Combine the flour mixture and the butter mixture using your hands to form a soft dough.
Make 20 balls out of the dough, each about 1 inch in diameter. Slightly flatten with your palm. Place the balls on the cookie sheet about 1.5 to 2 inches apart.
- Bake the cookies for about 10-12 minutes. When they come out of the oven they will be a little soft but will harden on cooling.
- Cool on a wire rack.
A small back story
When I had originally published this back in 2014, I was musing about how my dining table is always a mess. :). Raise your hand if you have had similar issues :).
A small sneak peek of what my then little Sonshine did for a music project which we celebrated by making some NanKhatai. The project was inspired by this (if anyone is interested, the website also gives a template), and some of the pictures from the template were printed on card stock.
Inspiration For The Recipe
I was on the lookout for an authentic Nankhatai recipe just like the way my aunt made it while growing up and my friend Sandhya shared this recipe with me. The original recipe that Sandhya shared uses nutmeg. But as far as I remember, my aunt never used it. So, I omit nutmeg when I make it.
How to Store Nankhatai
As far as the shelf life goes, these cookies have never lasted for more than a week at home, so I can only say they definitely would last for at least a week in an air-tight container.
Nankhatai
A simple, crunchy but crumbly, sweet and slightly salty cookie from India.
Ingredients
- 1 Cup (125 gm) All purpose flour or Maida
- ½ Cup (100 gm) Granulated Sugar
- ½ Cup (1 Stick) Unsalted Butter, softened
- 1 tsp Ground Cardamom
- ½ tsp Baking Soda
- ¼ tsp Salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit or 180 degrees Celsius.
- On a cookie tray, spread a baking sheet or parchment paper.
- Mix all-purpose flour, baking soda, salt, and ground cardamom in a small bowl using a small wire whisk.
- If the sugar granules are big, powder them using your food processor or mixer-grinder. In a large mixing bowl, mix together softened butter and sugar.
- Cream the butter and sugar till you cannot feel the sugar granules in the mixture. The time for this step depends on the size of the sugar granules.
- Add the flour mixture to the butter-sugar mix.
- Combine the flour mixture and the butter mixture using your hands to form a soft dough.
- Make 20 balls out of the dough, each about 1 inch in diameter. Slightly flatten with your palm. Place the balls on the cookie sheet about 1.5 to 2 inches apart.
- Bake the cookies for about 10-12 minutes. When they come out of the oven they will be a little soft, but will harden on cooling.
- Cool on a wire rack.
- Store in an air-tight cookie jar.
Gitanjali Mohan says
Hi, this is the easiest and simplest recipe I found online for nankhatai. I recently started baking and wanted to bake nankhatai. Can I use caster sugar in place of granulated sugar? If yes, is the measurement same?
Framed Recipes says
I tried out these nankhatais with caster sugar (home made - made caster sugar by grinding granulated sugar). They came out really tasty and good. So, you can use caster sugar to make them. Please make sure that caster sugar that you use does not have any other additives. And to answer your question about measurement - 1/2 cup granulated sugar on grinding yields about 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoon caster sugar. So adjust caster sugar quantity accordingly.
Deepti Anand says
Will definitely try this...n awesome art work!!! 🙂
Framed Recipes says
Sure, Let me know how it turned out for you. Will tell Sonshine about the art work. 🙂