NAAN-KHATAI: EGGLESS CINNAMON COOKIES

The word "naan-khatai" always rings fond, nostalgic memories for me; it being associated with my naani (maternal granny)....no....not just literally ("naan" khatai!!) but through her cooking. She used to bake the perfect naan-khatais, and keeping our little hands off it was impossible. This was always a featured request from us kiddies, on all her visits without fail. Her recipe eluded us a lot after she was gone, as there was no documentation. Somehow after many years, I found her recipe, quietly tucked away in my mother's recipe diary....and obviously my joy knew no bounds!! So this is my grandmother's recipe that I'm going to share today.


No weighing or measuring...you just need a cup....now don't ask me a U.S./ Imperial measure cup?! Any simple cup will do since all the ingredients are measured by that cup....so basically, the weight-ratio between them remains the same. Isn't it SIMPLE!!

WHAT YOU NEED:
1 cup Clarified Butter/ Ghee
3/4 cup All purpose flour
1/4 cup Besan (Chickpea Flour)
1 cup Wheat flour
1 cup Castor sugar/ vanilla sugar 
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1 tsp Almond extract

WHAT YOU DO:
Pre-heat your oven to 200 celsius. Grease your cookie tray and line it with butter paper.
Sieve all the flours 3-4 times to get an even consistency.
Whisk together ghee and sugar till light and fluffy. Add in cinnamon powder and almond extract.
Add flour to the creamed mixture and keep whisking till it comes together in the form of a ball. Use your hands to smoothen it (no need to knead it). It'll be a soft and smooth dough. (see NOTES below)
Grease your hands lightly, pinch small balls from the dough, shape them as per your desire and place them 1" apart on your tray.
Pop the tray into the oven at 200 C and bake for 8-10 mins. Immediately remove from tray and place them on a rack to cool completely. If left on the tray, they will become hard, as they continue to cook on the hot tray! So, if after taking out from oven, they are soft to touch at the base, then leave them on the tray itself for 10-15 mins and thereafter cool them on rack.

NOTES:

• The dough is not knead-able so there's no need to knead.....it just has to be brought together and smoothed with hands. If you feel it's not working, wrap the dough in a cling wrap and refrigerate it for 10 mins. Don't add more flour as it'll make the cookie tough.
• The cookies will puff up so place them 2" apart on the tray.
• As there is no baking powder/soda , the key to getting a fluffy naankhatai is whipping the ghee and sugar really good. So please don't skimp on it.
• If you want to shape the cookies using your cookie cutter, you can do so, however as the dough is not kneadable you cannot roll it out and cut it. You take your cutter, place it on the tray, fill it with the dough, and gently lift the cutter up. I made heart shaped naan-khatai in similar fashion.

Here are some more updated pics:

  Enjoy!!