Recreation of a Childhood Favorite...

One of the biggest thrills I get from food blogging is the rediscovery of long-forgotten childhood favorites...I am sure a lot of us have these memories of foods tasted long ago, which we cherish for many years, either because of the unique nature/taste of that food or because of an event or circumstance associated with that food...I have such memories associated with an Indian cookie called "Nankhatai" because a lady, one of our neighbors, while we lived in Bombay, India(back when I was a kid), would bake it often and pass it onto us. At that time, we did not own an oven(baking was not a very commonly used cooking technique back then, for us)...so it was enthralling to taste home-baked goodies, hot off the oven. Plus, it was some cookie...light and crisp, almost airy and not overly sweet with a hint of nuts and cardamom...I truly loved it and I relished it many times back then...in fact, we shamelessly encouraged our neighbor aunty to make it more often!!!

After, we left Bombay and moved to Calcutta, it was forgotten and I probably never tasted it again..we had an oven at home then, still....until recently, when I was so thrilled to find recipes for it in various food websites. I was amazed to find the variety of ways to prepare this cookie...some recipes had all APFlour..some had a combination of APF and semolina flour and yet others had a combination of APF, semolina and chickpea flour...whew!!!

So, what is this "Nankhatai"? It is a shortbread-like cookie flavored with cardamom or nutmeg, a medley of nuts and was originally prepared using eggs and flour by the Parsi population in India, though later on Indian Hindus popularised an eggless version. I found a detailed video on the vahrevah blog with many interesting variations on the recipe which is what I followed, though I did make some changes to it, notably by reducing the quantity of sugar needed and ended up with a crunchy, mildly-sweet yet flavorful end-product...just like I remembered it!!! Here is to finding many more forgotten food faves...I know my family enthusiastically agrees with that thought...:))

Here is an interesting(read, detailed:)) history of this famous Nankhatai on the indiacurry website...in case you would like to know more about this delicacy(I did and I found more than I ever expected to know:)) This lovely, forgotten favorite goes to Priya's CWS - Cardamom Seeds event.

Recipe for Nankhatai:

Prep/cook time: 20- 25 mins.

servings: 14-16 pieces

Ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour (plain flour or maida)

1/4 cup fine sooji or semolina

1/2 cup gram flour (besan)(optional) if used, increase sugar to 2/3 cup

Pinch of baking soda (a little less than 1/8 teaspoon)

1/2tsp baking powder

1/4 teaspoon green cardamom seeds coarsely powdered (ilaichi)

crushed pistachio, almonds for topping

few saffron strands

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/3 cup sugar

1tsp yoghurt

Note: all ethnic ingredients are available at Asian/Indian grocery stores

Method:
preheat oven to 325 f

mix dry ingredients separately

mix wet ingredients well together

combine both...make soft dough ball...put in fridge for few mins...then shape into discs...press the mixture of almond-pistachio on each cookie

bake for 15 mins...will appear soft when removed from oven then will crisp up.