Atta nankhatai recipe | Shortbread cookies.
Melt in your mouth cookies without eggs, baking powder/baking soda! Quick and easy to make!
Equipment
- oven
- weighing scale/measuring cups
Ingredients
- 90 grams Atta/Indian whole wheat flour 3/4 cup loosely packed
- 50 grams almond/badam powder 1/2 cup loosely packed
- 25 grams chickpea flour/besan 1/4 cup 1/4 cup loosely packed
- 40 grams semolina/smallest suji rava 1/4 cup
- 90 grams powdered sugar 1/2 cup, can be reduced for mildly sweet cookies.
- 120 grams ghee ½ cup, melted or at room temperature
- 30 grams ghee 2 tbsp, reserve, use only if needed
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ tsp cardamom powder
Instructions
- Cream 1/2 cup room temperature ghee with sugar using a spoon until its fluffy. Takes only about a minute.NOTE: Skip the creaming step if using melted ghee. Add melted ghee and sugar along with other ingredients in STEP 2
- Sieve in the atta, chickpea flour, almond flour, semolina, salt, cardamom powder.
- Gently mix using fingers to form a dough. Do not knead.
- If mixture is too dry, add melted ghee one teaspoon at a time until the dough comes together. If mixture feels too wet, add atta/whole wheat flour one teaspoon at a time.
- Make small balls and slightly flatten them. Makes about 13 medium sized cookies.
- Place them on a plate lined with parchment. Cover the plate with a cling wrap and refrigerate the dough for 20 minutes. For the best results, please do not skip this step.Note: If making ahead, dough can also be frozen at this step.
- Preheat oven to 350F, 177 Celsius
- After refrigeration, place the cookies 2 inch apart on a greased/parchment lined baking sheet.
- Bake at 350F for 15-17 minutes until the bottom is golden. The top will still be soft/crumbly but it will firm up as the cookies cool down. Do not overbake after the bottom turns golden. Note: Mine is always done at 15 minutes. Keep an eye on them after. Gently lift the parchment to check if the bottom is golden as the cookies are very delicate at this stage.
- Remove from oven. Let the cookies cool completely on the baking sheet before removing them into another container.
Video
Notes
- Please find substitution details, tips and troubleshooting in the blog post above.
- If ingredients are not being measured by weight, first sieve the flours and then measure by loosely packing the measuring cups.
- Keep in mind that different brands of flours may need different amount of liquid. When adding more ghee, add one teaspoon at a time.
- Semolina adds a crunch and chickpea flour(besan) adds to the flavour. However, they can be replaced with whole wheat flour/all purpose flour(maida). More ghee may be needed to bind.
- Add in 10 strands of saffron(crushed) for saffron flavoured nankhatai.
- Add 1 tsp of roasted and coarsely crushed cumin, for cumin flavoured cookies.
- I like to use Sharbati variety of atta in these cookies but any variety of atta should work fine. Whole wheat pastry flour, white whole wheat flour and all purpose flour can be used instead.