Kesar Nan Khatai Cookies | Flavored Nan Khatai Biscuit

I love Indian bakery goodies, and of all the different bakes my most favourite is Nan Khatai and since its festival season I thought why not doing a twist with the traditional Nan Khatai by making it a Saffron flavoured. Nan Khatai are buttery melt in the mouth cookies and have a crumbly texture. The cookies are great as a snack and can be wrapped as a treat for guests or kids. Saffron Nan Khatai are firm on the outside with a slight mithai flavour on the inside. The topped nuts add to the crunch and taste. These colourful Saffron Nan Khatai are sure a joy to taste and attractive looking. Give this a dry during the festive time. 

KESAR NAN KHATAI RECIPE

Recipe Source - Own
Makes - 10-12 medium cookies
Total time - 35 mins

Ingredients

Gram/Gram/Chickpea Flour - 1/2 cup
All purpose flour/ maida - 1 cup
Sooji - 3 tbsp
Sugar - 1/2 cup, powdered 
Cardamom powder - 1 tsp
Ghee - 3 tbsp (melted)
Butter - 4 tbsp (melted)
Kesar food colour - 2 pinches (optional)
Kewar extract - 3 drops

Method

• In a bowl add gram flour, maida, sooji, powdered sugar, cardamom powder, food colour and kewar extract, mix well and set aside
• Melt butter and ghee together and let it cool down, now add this to the dry ingredients little by little to get a smooth dough(in case you added more ghee/butter and the mixture is runny. Pop in the refrigerator for 10-15 mins to become firm to handle)
• Preheat oven to 300 F/ 150 C for 10 minutes, prepare a baking tray with parchment/ butter paper. Roll the dough into balls and place on the tray. Add the chopped nuts on top and press them gently to flatten a bit
• Bake for 30- 35 minutes until the cookies are firm and have a golden base, make sure that the cookies do not get burnt (keep a close watch on the cookies after 25 mins) Once done remove from oven and place on a cooling rack for 10 minutes

Store in airtight containers or parcel them in wraps and distribute as gifts 

Cooks Wisdom
- I used a combination of ghee and butter for these cookies you can go ahead and use only ghee too. Ghee adds a more desi touch to these cookies
- Adding besan flour gives a mithai flavour to the cookie, you can skip it with regular all purpose flour too
- Adding cardamom gives a lovely fragrant cookie
- You also mix the dough with chopped nuts 
- I did not use pure saffron and instead used saffron extract and colour you can dilute saffron in 2 tbsp of milk and add to the cookie dough
- I powdered 1/2 cup granulated sugar and got 1 cup powdered sugar 

Check out variations to Nan Khatai 

Chocolate Nan Khatai

Indian bakery style Nan Khatai