Nankhatais are melt-in-mouth beautiful biscuits. These biscuits first originated in Surat, Gujarat. Tahini Nankhatai is a fusion twist to the original Nankhatai recipe. The tahini's earthy taste gorgeously compliments these cardamom-scented sugar biscuits. Jeweled with sesame seeds, the biscuits look incredibly gorgeous.
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What is Nankhatai?
Nankhatais are beautiful eggless Indian buttery cookies. These cookies are sweetened using powdered sugar and perfumed with cardamom. They are melt-in-mouth delicious and pair beautifully with Masala Chai.
These cookies were first originated in the city of Surat, Gujarat. The word nankhatai hails from Persian origin, naan meaning bread and khatai meaning biscuit. The Persian bakery owner would sell the dried Dutch bread to the locals, and hence these cookies were born.
This Indian cookie is eggless, with the most buttery crumble. The cookie dough is made with all-purpose flour, besan (chickpea flour), semolina, powdered sugar, cardamom powder and ghee.
What is Tahini Nankhatai?
Tahini adds a beautiful depth of flavor to the sweet shortbread variety of cookies. It adds a nutty, earthy, and buttery flavor to these nankhatai biscuits. The cardamom compliments the tahini in the nankhatais perfectly, adding a beautiful scent to the cookies. The tahini cookies are a hit!!!
Can we make them Vegan?
You can substitute ghee with vegan butter or coconut oil to make these cookies vegan!!!
Tips to Make Them
- You have to use the measuring cups and spoons to make this recipe. As long as you follow the recipe properly, the cookies will taste utterly buttery delicious.
- Use vegan butter or coconut oil to make these cookies vegan. Although in my opinion, the vegan butter will taste the best.
- If you are not vegan, try using ghee as it is used traditionally to make this recipe. But if you don't have ghee, use unsalted butter, they will come out delicious.
- I like to powder the sugar at home for this recipe because the confectioner's sugar can have cornstarch added to it.
- I add ghee/ butter at room temperature, so the consistency is usually semi-solid.
Ingredients to Make the Eggless Cookies
- Castor Sugar - I use castor sugar and grind it in a spice blender to make it powdered sugar. I do this because sometimes store-bought sugar may have cornstarch present in it. If you want to add jaggery powder, you can add it. Although, it can make the cookies have a darker color.
- Ghee - I am using ghee at room temperature in the recipe because you want the ghee to make it crumbly. If you use melted ghee, you will have to keep your cookie dough in the refrigerator. And you don't want to use solidified ghee, because it won't mix well with the wet ingredients.
- Baking Soda - It is the rising agent in this recipe.
- Tahini - Tahini is the star ingredient of this recipe. Tahini is a sesame seeds paste, which adds a beautiful earthy, nutty, and buttery flavor.
- All-Purpose Flour - The traditional nankhatai recipe uses all-purpose flour (maida), but you can substitute it with whole wheat flour.
- Besan - Chickpea flour aka besan is also used in this recipe. It not only adds a beautiful texture to the cookies but also, adds a beautiful nutty aroma to it.
- Sesame Seeds- Since we are making Tahini Nankhatai, I wanted to garnish the cookie with its star ingredient. Jeweled with beautiful sesame seeds, these cookies look stunning!!!
More Sankranti Recipes From The Blog
Tahini Nankhatai
These nutrional values are automatically generated. Use them for estimation only.
Equipment
- 1 Mixing Bowl
- 1 Whisk
- 1 Cookie Sheet
Ingredients
- ⅓ Cup Castor Sugar Grind it to make powdered sugar. If using powdered sugar, use half cup powdered sugar
- ½ Cup Ghee Semi-Solid Consistency at Room Temperature
- 1 Teaspoon Cardamom Powder
- ⅓ Cup Tahini
- ½ Teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1 Cup Maida
- ¼ Cup Besan
- ¼ Cup White Sesame Seeds for coating the cookies
Instructions
- Preheat the oven at 350F.
- In a spice grinder add castor sugar, and pulse until powdered.
- Sift and add the powdered sugar to a mixing bowl.
- To this, add ghee, tahini, cardamom powder, and baking soda.
- Whisk it until fluffy.
- Now sift in the all-purpose flour and besan.
- Using a spatula, fold the ingredients together to make the dough. Don't knead the dough.
- The dough should come together easily.
- If you think your dough is very soft, cover it with a plastic wrap and keep it in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.
- Then using a cookie scoop, make equal parts of the cookie dough. Roll them round, and flatten them just a little bit between your palms.
- Now roll the prepared cookie dough balls in the sesame seeds.
- Now place the cookie dough balls, on a parchment lined baking tray.
- Bake the Tahini Nankhatais for 12-15 minutes. Baking time depends on your oven. Keep an eye on them from 10 minute mark.
- Take them out of the oven. Transfer them immediately on a wire rack and and let them cool.
- Serve them with masala chai or coffee.
Notes
- These cookies are great for gifting.
- If you have guests coming home, these are the easiest cookies to make with pantry staple ingredients.
- For traditional Nankhatai recipe, skip tahini , and ¼ cup of plain full fat yogurt, ¼ teaspoon Baking Soda and 1 Tablespoon Semolina.
- You can store them in an air-tight container, for upto 2-3 weeks.
- This recipe yields 10 large nankhatais. You can make them a little smaller, and the recipe should yield 15 smaller nankhatais.
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