Nankattai

Hey everyone.. Happy December! 'Tis the season to make goodies!

Fig. 1. Nankattai by the window sill

Do you have any favorite holiday goodies you almost always bake around this time of the year? I usually make all sorts of cookies. Nankattai this year is the first in line. I will be baking crinkle cookies and chocolate chip cookies next. I like to put all sorts of stuff in those. Might add some toffee bits this time. Mint chips and raspberry chips also taste terrific with chocolate based cookies. I love baking cookies. Hope to pack a few goodies and mail them off to family and friends. Let's see how much baking I manage.

Nankattai are cookies my Mom used to bake back home. So this is her recipe. There is nothing like the warm and fragrant elaichi with a hint of nutmeg! Start off the morning with Nankattai baking hot in the oven... and you know that the day ahead will be just perfect! You can imagine having these mildly sweet cookies with some yummy adrak-elaichi-wali chai (ginger-cardamom tea).

Some of the above yummy is now officially in the tummy.. some of my cookie giftees will just have to wait for a few more batches! ;) And yes, I took the pan over to the window sill to get some real light in the picture.

Ingredients:
Ghee (I used melted butter) - 1 cup
Sugar - 3/4 cup (can add more if you like sweeter)
Baking powder - 1 and 1/2 teaspoon
All purpose flour - 2 cups
Cardamoms (elaichi) - 6-7 pods, peeled, powdered
Nutmeg powder - 1/4 teaspoon

Procedure:
1)  Beat together ghee and sugar. I used melted butter instead of ghee. The texture does change a bit (less powdery) perhaps due to my using butter instead of ghee. But otherwise the taste is exactly the same.
2) Sieve together baking powder and all purpose flour.
3) Add those spoon by spoon into the sugar + ghee mixture from step 1.
4) Add cardamom powder and nutmeg powder. Mix well by hand.
5) Make small flattened discs and bake in the oven at 350 degrees F for about 20-25 minutes. Check after 15 minutes or so. My first batch was a bit over browned at 25 minutes (which is the time my Mom's recipe suggested). But my second batch (shown in the above pic) was perfect at 20 minutes.

This took me about 20-25 minutes of prep time + 45 minutes of baking time. I got about 30 cookies, each of about 2 inch diameter. So do leave space in between the cookies to expand in the oven.

Okily-dokily.. do let me know if you have suggestions for quick and easy cookies. Cheerio!