Nankatai - Indian Biscuit

Nankatais are Indian biscuits prepared with Maida and vegetable shortening. The base recipe is TC's Nankatai, but I did not add almonds and saffron in my recipe. Here is the simple recipe for Nankatai (Indian cookie).

Ingredients:

Sugar

USA - one and half cups

India - one cup

Vegetable shortening - a little less than one cup (I used dalda brand from Indian store)

Maida flour - approximately two cups

Cardamom powder - half teaspoon

Method:

Grind the sugar and transfer it to a large mixing bowl.

Add the vegetable shortening and cream the mixture using an electric hand mixer.

When the content becomes creamy and light add the cardamom powder and flour and mix well, using your hand.

The consistency should be soft and at the same time you should be able to make balls out of it.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Make small balls out of the dough and arrange neatly in a non stick cookie tray. Press a little on top of each ball. You can use a fork to dent lines on the top.

Place in the preheated oven and bake for approximately six to seven minutes and take the tray out. Allow it to cool completely in the same tray.

Note: More flour will make the nankatais more crunchy and they crack when baked. More shortening will make the nankatais more fragile and will break when touched. Perfect nankatais are not too crunchy and do not break when touched and has a light golden color in the bottom.

Eggless Tutti Fruity Cookies

A big thanks to Sailu for sharing her wonderful eggless recipe of the tuity fruity cookies. I tried the cookies . Though mine were not as white as her's, it sure did come out very well. The slight yellow color might be because I used a yellow colored custard powder-vanilla flavor. She had used vanilla extract, but I used cardamom extract. I had to use drops of cold water in the end because the dough was little dry and I could not make balls. The recipe below is based on Sailu's Eggless Tutti-Frutti Cookies.

Ingredients:

2 cups Maida
1 cup Canola oil (refined oil)
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup custard powder (I used vanilla flavor)
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons Cardamom Extract

Tutti fruity for garnish

Method:

Mix together maida, baking powder, baking soda and custard powder and in a bowl and dry whisk them really well.

Blend the sugar and oil till smooth. Add the flour to the sugar-oil mixture. Add Cardamom extract and mix well to form a dough. If the dough doesn’t become stiff enough to roll out into balls, add a few tbsps of cold milk or water and chill for a few minutes.

Make small balls out the dough. Garnish with tutti fruity, by slightly pressing into the dough. Place on a greased tray and bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for about 10 -12 mts or till done. Once baked, the cookie will feel soft on touch but once cool it will harden. If you over bake beyond the mentioned time limit, you will have a very crunchy cookie.

Cool on a wire rack and store in airtight container.

Click Here for the original recipe.

Thanks Sailu, for sharing this wonderful cookie recipe.

Eggless Butter Cookies

Its holiday season and lots of baking going on around the world. Getting into the mode of preparing cookies, I googled for eggless versions. Looking at the many versions, I noticed that one thing was common. Beating butter with sugar and mixing some flour, the standard way of preparing simple cookies. With this in mind, I came up with a simple recipe, with very few ingredients and named it 'eggless butter cookies'. This can be tried by anyone. There is nothing in the procedure that can go wrong. This is my entry to the 'Eat Chrismas Cookies', a food blogga's event for christmas cookies roundup.

Ingredients:

1 cup Butter (at room temperature)

1 cup Powdered sugar

1 teaspoon Cardamom Extract (just add your favorite extract)

2 cups of All purpose flour (I used maida)

1 teaspoon Baking powder

1/2 teaspoon Baking soda

Tutty fruity for decorating the cookies (optional)

Method:

Take the softened butter in a large mixing bowl. Add the sugar and whisk using an electirc hand mixer. Cream until light and fluffy. Add the Extract and whisk again.

Take the Flour in another bowl. Add the Baking powder and Baking soda and (dry) whisk well. Incorporate the Flour slowly in the cream while mixing at the same time, until well blended. The cookie dough is ready.

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Now, make small balls and place it in an ungreased cookie sheet (use parchment paper) providing atleast 3/4th to 1 inch distance between the balls.

Decorating the cookie is up to you. I pressed each ball with the fork to dent lines. The second time, I tried pressing and placing Tutty fruity in the middle. Bake at 300 degrees for atleast approximately 20 minutes. The cookie is done when it turns lightly brown. Cool them and store in airtight containter. If the cookies are small, the yield is atleast a little more than a couple of dozens.