Nankhatai

Chocolate Nankhatai

Nankhatai is a popular Indian, eggless cookie. I made a batch of these for Diwali using a recipe from Manjula's kitchen on You Tube. But I changed it up a bit for half the batch by adding cocoa and turning them into chocolate nankhatais. Here's how I made them:

1/3 cup maida (all purpose flour)

1/3 cup fine semolina

1/2 cup gram flour

A pinch of baking soda (Less than 1/8th tsp)

1/4 tsp vanilla essence

2 tbsp cocoa pwd.

1/2 cup unsalted butter (softened at room temperature)

2/3 cup powdered sugar

Almonds for garnish

Preheat oven to 350c.

Mix the first 6 ingredients well.

Make sure the sugar is of fine texture, you can pwd it in a blender if needed. Blend the sugar and butter (I used a blender for this) until soft & fluffy. Then mix the flour mixture to the butter/sugar mix and knead gently into a soft dough. Break into small round balls. Flatten each slightly. Top with half an almond. Place these on a greased baking tray and bake for about 12 mins.

I have had varying degrees of success making nankhatais in the past, but really loved how these chocolate ones came out.

These Chocolate Nankhatai's are off to FIC-Brown event at TongueTicklers.

I also made a batch of regular nankhatais using the above recipe. For making these, simply omit the vanilla essence and cocoa pwd from the above recipe. Add 1/4 tsp cardamon pwd instead. You can top the plain nankhatai with pistas, cashews, almonds or charolis. You can also add few strands of saffron to give them a good flavor. Here are my plain and chocolate nankhatais.

These Chocolate and Plain Nankhatais go to the JFI - Diwali Festival event at Cooking 4 All Seasons. JFI is the brainchild of Indira of Mahanandi.

Oh, and before I forget, these nankhatais go very well with a cup of steaming hot chocolate.

This easy, single serving of hot chocolate is just off the box of Hershey's Cocoa pwd. Here's how I make it:

1 cup milk - microwaved for 2 mins.

2 tsp sugar

2-3 tsp cocoa pwd

A pinch of salt

1/4 tsp vanilla essence

Mix the sugar, cocoa & salt in a large drinking mug. Slowly our the hot milk, stirring gently all the time. Add the vanilla, stir and enjoy.

This easy hot chocolate is also off to the FIC - Brown event at TongueTicklers.