Nankhatai Indian Biscuits
Nankhatai
Sunita Gupta
Nan Khatai is a well known, traditional biscuits from Punjab region of India and Pakistan. You can buy them ready-made everywhere in Northern India but nothing beats the taste of freshly made ones! They are quite easy to make at home too, so give them a try.
Makes 18
Ingredients
1 1/4 cup plain flour or maida (all purpose flour)
3/4 cup besan flour (Bengal gram flour)
1 tbsp. fine semolina or sooji
3/4 cup clarified butter or ghee
1 cup castor (ground) sugar
A pinch of salt
A pinch of baking soda or 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. green cardamom seeds, ground to powder
8-10 green pistachios, finely chopped/shredded
Instructions
Switch the oven on to 180C/350/Gas/Mark 4
Sieve plain besan flour, semolina and plain flour into a bowl. This is to remove any lumps from the flours.
Add sugar and either a small pinch of baking soda or 1/4 tsp. baking powder. Mix
Add ground cardamom. Mix.
Make a well in the middle and add ghee/clarified butter.
Mix together with your hand, until a smooth dough is formed. This does not take long. No kneading is required. (Forgot to take a picture of the dough!)
Line a baking tray with a non-stick baking sheet/paper.
Pick a soup spoon worth of dough at a time and make small, round balls. Flatten each a little to a biscuit shape and place it on the baking sheet. Continue this way until all the dough has been used up. I make about 18 biscuits from this amount.
Press slightly in the centre, I do this with a biscuit patter maker. If you don't have one, just press lightly in the centre of each biscuit.
Sprinkle some of your chopped pistachios on each and press very lightly.
Bake in the heated oven for around 20 minutes, until lightly golden. I would recommend that you check after 15 minutes and then give 5 more minutes, if needed.
