Nankatai - Indian Cookies

Those who have been following me know that I am so scared of baking. When I say baking, I am not talking about making cakes and all those wonderful stuff. Even turning on the oven to bake some vegetables scares me. I have tried making cakes a couple of times and most have ended in disasters.

I decided the time has come for me to get over that fear. With that in mind I started making a few things - mainly vegetable side dishes. That step went well. I even made my version of Dil Khush and Pizza. But I knew that those were minor steps. The big step is when I actually make a cake. That has to wait for now. 

For this month's Blog Hop I was paired with Veena. There were quite a few recipes in her site that I liked and I started bookmarking them to find 'the' one that I wanted to make. When I saw the recipe for Nankatai I knew this is my chance to do a little something to face my fear. I am glad I did. It turned out really good. My son called it cookies and kept asking for more. What better compliment can you ask for.

Ingredients - Makes 15 Cookies

Maida/All Purpose Flour 1 cup

Sugar Powdered 1/2 cup

Ghee 1/2 cup 

Cardamom 1/4 tsp

Baking Soda a pinch

Salt 1 pinch

Method of Preparation

1. Take ghee in solid form in a bowl (i made ghee by melting butter and once done I kept in freezer for 5 minutes). It should not be hard or melted.

2. Mix in the powdered sugar. Whisk till it is nice and creamy. I used a hand blender and worked for a few minutes

3. Add the maida, cardamom, baking powder and salt. Mix well with hand for a minute or two. Let it sit for 20 minutes.

4. Preheat the oven to 190C. Greese a cookie sheet. Make 15 small balls out of the dough and flatten to form a cookie shape with your hand. 

5. Arrange with some space in between and bake for 12-14 minutes. 

6. Cool for 15 minutes and store in an airtight container.

Notes - Updated on 15/06/2012 

1. The cookies on the farther end of the sheet were slightly browned at the base. The ones near the oven door were better. So next time, I am thinking may be I will rotate the tray half way thru...

2. I tried sticking some pistas on the top. I did not press some of it in well. A few got burned :-)

Linking this to Blog Hop Wednesday - Recipe by Veena

Linking this to I love Baking
Linking this to Lets Cook - Kids Special
Linking this to Cookie Mela