Nan khatai is an eggless shortbread cookie made typically in South Asia. Easy to whip up and always a favourite 😍
Nan khatai is a staple in our home. I may be biased, but my mom makes the best nan khatai in the world! They don’t get any better or prettier than this! What’s her secret? Don’t be stingy with the ghee. Mo ghee mo ghee! 😅
Nan Khatai
Course: DessertCuisine: PakistaniDifficulty: MediumServings
36
servingsPrep time
30
minutesCooking time
30
minutesTotal time
1
hourIngredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 cup ghee
1½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp cardamom powder
egg yolk and pistachio powder to garnish
Directions
- Pre-heat oven to 120C.
- Mix the dry ingredients.
- Melt the ghee and add to the dry ingredients (the ghee shouldn’t be too hot).
- Mix by hand to combine. The mixture will be crumbly.
- Make round, flattened cookies and place on a lined baking tray.
- At the centre of each cookie, make a cross (using the blunt end of a spoon) or thumbprint. This prevents the egg yolk from spilling to the sides and gives your cookie a neater look.
- With a spoon put a little bit of yolk at the centre of each cookie.
- Sprinkle with pistachio powder.
- Bake for 30 minutes.
Notes
- When making the cookies, just make sure they’re firm and smooth. Should not have cracks.
- The dough tends to dry out fairly quickly (esp in winters), so I would suggest making 5 cookies and then making the cross on it. Then move on to the next 5 and so on. If you make all the cookies and then make crosses later, the first few will have dried out and will crack when you try to make a cross on it.
- Keep the dough loosely covered with a plate. If the dough starts to dry out, microwave it for 10 seconds. This will melt the ghee again (without actually cooking the dough) and make it easier to handle.
