Wheat Nankhatai or Atta Nankhatai is a delicious, melt in mouth eggless cookie or shortbread biscuit with a delicate nutty flavor prepared using just 5 basic ingredients in less than 30 minutes.
These cookies are perfect accompaniments for any tea party, and can also be given as a personalized gift to your family and friends during Diwali as mithai box or Christmas holidays or anytime of the year 🙂
Wish you all happy and prosperous Diwali, Thanksgiving, Happy Holidays.
What Diwali means? How is Diwali celebrated?
After 9 days for Navratri, the next festival I am super excited about is Diwali 🙂 I love the last 3 months of the year as different festivals and occasions are celebrated everywhere and the weather starts getting pleasant, and the Fall color mesmerizes me every single year.
My parents and in laws keep telling me how Diwali was super exciting for them when they were young. It was during Diwali that they got a chance to buy new dress and eat lot of snacks and sweets at home, and participate in all festive celebrations.
It was so difficult during their times that they were allowed to buy a pair of dress only twice a year and eat special snacks and sweets only during festivals and occasions. Our generation on the other hand has been fortunate to have access to the best the world has to offer, and personally I have no one but my parents to thank for - it was because of their sacrifices I was able to have a comfortable and enriching childhood.
Diwali for me means attending different poojas, to burn crackers/fireworks (which I completely stopped when I was in 6th grade - since then I have been making sure to the best of my ability no to pollute our environment) and to eat lots of sweets and snacks.
It is quite customary to offer an assortment of sweets and snacks to all guests who visit home or business during this festival. While these days many buy and stock store-bought snacks and sweets for Diwali for convenience, I am sure most of you will agree that they do not taste as good as their homemade counterparts.
Homemade goodies, maybe sweets (mithai) or savory snacks (namkeen) are prepared with love and care, and in my opinion these two ingredients make homemade delicacies extra special.
After trying out spicy butter biscuits, dry fruit cookies and traditional nankhatai, many readers requested me to post a cookie recipe using wheat flour (atta). My family, specially my husband loves nankhatai and this is also a popular sweet prepared during festivals. so I decided to make a new version of it using whole wheat flour so that you guys can also try a batch in advance and then again during the festival 🙂
The flavor of the cookies was really much better than traditional nankhatai. It was crumblier and healthy too. These Nankhatai cookies are super easy to make at home. It requires few simple ingredients and takes very little time to prepare. The final outcome is so good, that I bet you cannot stop after eating one.
This is also called narayan katar in konkani and is similar to pecan sandies available here in the United States.
Preparation time : 1 hour
Serves : 15 Nankhatai
Ingredients for Wheat Nankhatai
Whole wheat flour / Atta – 1 ½ cup
Vegetable shortening / Vanaspati dalda or Ghee - ⅔ cup
Baking soda – ¾ tsp
Sugar – ¾ cup
Cardamom powder – ½ tsp
Salt – a pinch (optional)
Almonds - for topping (optional)
How to make wheat nankhatai or Atta Nakhatai
Step I
- In a bowl combine flour, shortening, soda, sugar, cardamom powder and salt to form a dough.
- Note that I have not added any water while forming the dough. Vegetable shortening binds everything together.
- Cover it and keep it in refrigerator for atleast 30 minutes.
Step II
- Preheat the oven for 300 degree F / 148 degree C.
- Form golf size balls from the dough and press to flatten it slightly. Place an almond at the center of each nankhatai.
- Keep it in baking tray lined with parchment paper or on a silicone mat.
- Bake these cookies for about 18 to 22 minutes or until bottom turns golden brown in color. (Check the tip section)
- Allow it to cool down for about 10 – 15 minutes - cookies will crisp up upon cooling.
- Wheat Nankhatai is now ready. Serve with cup of coffee / tea and enjoy.
Tips to make perfect nankhatai:
- In USA, fine granulated sugar is readily available in market. In India, sugar which we use at home is coarse, so grind it in mixer to get it to powdered form before adding it to form the nankhatai dough. This powdered sugar is different from confectioners sugar.
- Preheat the microwave oven to convection mode 180 degree c. Then bake nankhatais for 15-20 mins or until it’s done.
- You can also check out my variations to nankhatai like traditional Nankhatai, Ragi Nankhatai
- Baking time of the cookie may vary depending on the size of the cookie and the oven. You might feel the cookies are still soft. But remove when you see golden brown color at the bottom.
- Do not remove the cookies from the baking pan till it cools down completely else these cookies going to break apart.
- See that your dough is not too dry. Add a teaspoon of milk (or more) to increase the moisture
- For those who want to use ghee, make sure you use them in semi solid state or even use butter at room temperature (semi solid state). The texture of cookies and time for baking may vary accordingly. I have tried making it with ghee and dalda and both tastes great!
- To make these cookies vegan use dalda or shortening and non vegan use ghee or brown butter
I have shared all my tips and tricks, how to get perfect nankhatai and more on this traditional nankhatai post.
DON’T MISS TO CHECK OUT MY COLLECTION OF SWEET AND DESSERT RECIPES FOR THIS FESTIVAL SEASON.
Detailed recipe for Whole Wheat Nankhatai or Atta Nankhatai
WHOLE WHEAT NANKHATAI | ATTA NANKHATAI
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups Whole wheat flour or Atta
- ⅔ cup Ghee or (Vegetable shortening or Vanaspati Dalda for vegan version)
- ¾ teaspoon Baking soda
- ¾ cup Sugar, fine granulated or powdered (check tips)
- ½ teaspoon Cardamom powder
- ⅛ teaspoon or pinch of salt (optional)
- 15 Almond or Badam for garnish, optional
Instructions
Step I
- In a bowl combine flour, ghee or shortening, baking soda, sugar, cardamom powder and salt to form a dough. Note that I have not added any water while forming the dough.
- Vegetable shortening or ghee binds everything together.
- Cover it and keep it aside for atleast 30 minutes. (This cookie dough is so tasty, make sure not to finish it off 🙂 )
Step II
- Preheat the oven for 300 degree F / 148 degree C.
- Form golf size balls from the dough and press to flatten it slightly. Place an almond at the center of each nankhatai.
- Keep it in greased pan or baking tray lined with parchment paper or on a silicone mat.
- Bake these cookies for about 18 to 22 minutes or until bottom turns golden brown in color. (Check the tip section)
- Allow it to cool down for about 10 – 15 minutes – cookies will crisp up upon cooling.
- Wheat Nankhatai is now ready. Serve with cup of coffee / tea and enjoy.
Notes
- In USA, fine granulated sugar is readily available in market. In India, sugar which we use at home is coarse, so grind it in mixer to get it to powdered form before adding it to form the nankhatai dough. This powdered sugar is different from confectioners sugar.
- Preheat the microwave oven to convection mode 180 degree c. Then bake nankhatais for 15-20 mins or until it’s done.
- You can also check out my variations to nankhatai like traditional Nankhatai, Ragi Nankhatai
- Baking time of the cookie may vary depending on the size of the cookie and the oven. You might feel the cookies are still soft. But remove when you see golden brown color at the bottom.
- Do not remove the cookies from the baking pan till it cools down completely else these cookies going to break apart.
- See that your dough is not too dry. Add a teaspoon of milk (or more) to increase the moisture.
- For those who want to use ghee, make sure you use them in semi solid state or even use butter at room temperature (semi solid state). The texture of cookies and time for baking may vary accordingly. I have tried making it with ghee and dalda and both tastes great!
- To make these cookies vegan use dalda and non vegans use ghee or brown butter
If you like this Indian sweet or dessert recipe,
Don't miss to check out some of my popular and delicious Indian desserts and sweets to try this festival and holiday season.
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Kavita
It tastes yummm when you use home made ghee instead of vegetable shortening/vanaspati.. Must try once.
Kushi
Sure. Thank you so much for letting me know. Do share your Nankhatai pics on Instagram and tag us!
Kushi
Agree. I make it both the ways these days. My family just loves it.