Nankhetai Recipes : Plain Nankhetai and Chocolate Beet Spice Nankhetai

I often try to picture, my great-grandmother, a slim, fair beauty, sitting on the step of her parents home immunized from the dust and commotion of family life through her love of reading and literature. I am not one from those connected Indian families, those people whose family had connections in the government, with the British, or filmi. We were that middle-class, average sort of Indian—we still are. And, that my great-grandmother was sent to school, learned to read English, loved Dostoyevsky above all others, brings me neverending joy. As a child, I relished her because she listened to me even when all I talked about was Strawberry Shortcake and ice cream. She made me tiny little food—mini little dosas, small cups of Bournvita, mini-samosas. She loved me.

Not too long ago, my mother was talking about how my great-grandmother would make nankhatai, basically shortbread cookies, and then go down the street to a communal oven to fire them. Of course, I couldn’t leave well enough alone, after making regular cookies, I also made some chocolate, spice beetroot ones.

Recipe:

Nankhatai
Mix:
1 tsp cardamom powder
1 tsp rose water
½ tsp vanilla
½ cup clarified butter OR ½ cup oil if you want them vegan

Add dry ingredients:
3/4 cup flour
¼ cup almond flour or pistachio flour (or use 1 cup flour)
½ cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder

Make a stiff dough.

Use teaspoons to make ovals of dough and then shape into a petal to shape like a lamp. Use a sliver of almond to look like the flame. Decorate with sanding sugar, dragees, sprinkles.

Beet and Chocolate Nankhatai
Mix:
1 tsp cardamom powder
½ tsp garam masala
1 tsp rose water
½ tsp vanilla
½ cup clarified butter
2 T olive oil

Add dry ingredients:
3/4 cup flour
¼ cup cocoa powder
½ cup sugar
1/2 cup grated beets
1 tsp baking powder

Make a stiff dough. (you might need a bit more oil depending)

Use teaspoons to make ovals of dough and then shape into a petal to shape like a lamp. Use a sliver of almond to look like the flame. Decorate with sanding sugar, dragees, sprinkles.