Cardamom Shortbread / Nankhatai

Nankhatai

These cookies originated in Gujarat, where they are especially popular with Parsis.  Surat and Navsari, strongholds of traditional Parsi culture have local mithai shops that make these.

In western India—Bombay, Poona, parts of Gujarat—festive processions will often be accompanied by musicians known popularly as nankhatai bands, possibly because some of the bands may have originally been made up of moonlighting bakers and vendors of nankhatai. The tunes they played were “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary,” “Marching through Georgia,” “My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean,” “Pistol-Packing Mama,” “Swanee River,” and, in the 1960s, the immensely popular theme from the film Come September, all slightly off-key with lots of percussion and brass and comic opera uniforms. Nowadays, although the instruments and costumes are the same, the tunes are all drawn from current Hindi film hits.

Nankhatai

If you’re making the usual two-inch cookies, this recipe will yield about twenty; or you can make lots of smaller ones. They should be made a day or more ahead, to let the cardamom flavor permeate. Makes about 20.

1/2 cup ghee
1/2 cup superfine sugar
1 teaspoon yogurt
2/3 cup all purpose flour
2/3 cup fine semolina (suji or rava)
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon cardamom seeds, pounded
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
Chironji nuts (charoli), slivered almonds, or cardamom seeds, for decoration

Using a mixer or food processor, cream the ghee with the sugar and yogurt until pale and fluffy. (If you don’t have superfine sugar, sometimes sold as baker’s sugar, use regular granulated sugar and give it a few pulses in the food processor before adding to the ghee.) Add the flour, semolina, cardamom, cream of tartar, and baking soda and mix or process until the mixture resembles fine meal. It will not be a dough, nor should it be.

Heat the oven to 250 degrees.

Nankhatai

Gently press a heaping teaspoon in your palm until it forms a ball, or use a miniature ice cream scoop. Compress the ball slightly by squeezing it between your palms. What you want to end up with is a flattened round. Top with 1 or more charoli. Try putting the nuts in your right palm before plopping in the mixture to be shaped. That way, the mixture shapes itself around the nuts, which are then securely embedded. Any other way of getting them on and stuck in place is just fine. Place on an ungreased baking sheet and repeat with more dough and nuts.

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes. Nankhatai should cook through without browning at all. Let cool on the sheet until hard enough to handle. When they have completely cooled, store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Note: Charoli (accent on the first syllable) is a “nut” the size and shape of a large brown lentil, often used in sweets. It’s the seed of Buchanania latifolia, commonly called chironji in India, from the family Anacardiaceae, which means it’s related to mangoes and cashews. You can find it at Indian groceries. Don’t buy very much at a time, and store what you don’t use in the freezer.