How to make Nankhataai Ingredients: 1 cup maida (all purpose flour) 1/2 cup fine ground sugar 1/2 cup melted ghee (not all ghee may be required) seeds of 3 or 4 green cardamoms - crushed fine 1/2 teaspoon baking powder (optional) as many cashews (kaaju) or almonds (baadaam) as naankhatai balls made Preparation: 1. Take ground sugar and add crushed cardamom to it. 2. Add ghee, ONE SPOON AT A TIME and batter well. You can use a hand mixer for this. Just battering with spoon will also do. 3. Keep adding ghee till the mixture is thick but free flowing. 4. Do not add more ghee than necessary. The ghee is meant for making dough like water is used to make roti dough. But we are not using water here. 5. Now add baking poweder. 6. Start adding maida and keep battering at the same time. Ensure that maida mixes evenly and does not form globules. 7. Make the dough thick but soft. It should easily shape into balls but not be hard. 8. Make balls of the size of a small lemon. 9. Grease a baking tray with butter and then place the balls on a baking tray. 10. FLATTEN the balls into thick circular discs (about 1/2 cm thick) 11. If you are using cashews or almonds, press one deep into the flat disc. One per disc. Baking: 1. Preheat the oven to 190° to 200° C. 2. Place the baking tray inside the oven. 3. Bake the naankhatai for 10-15 minutes. 4. Keep monitoring all the times - say after every minute. 5. Remove the tray just when the naankhatai start turning orange. WARNING: DO NOT BROWN THEM. Let them cool and then serve them with tea or coffee. Naankhatai go well with coffee in my opinion - especially pure black coffee. Even cold milk is fine.
Posted on: Tue, 11 Nov 2014 12:34:41 +0000