Nankhatai

Nankhatai

Alternative names	Kulcha-e-Khataye
Type	Shortbread
Associated cuisine	Indian, Bangladeshi, Pakistani
Main ingredients	Wheat flour, Rice flour, Butter, Powdered Sugar, Milk/Yogurt, Salt, Honey, Baking Powder
Media: Nankhatai

Nankhatai (Bengali: নানখাতাই, Hindustani: नानख़टाई (Devanagari) / نان خطائی (Urdu)/ Ghanakatha (Sinhala)) are shortbread biscuits originating from the Gujarat region of the Indian subcontinent, popular in Northern India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar (formerly Burma).

Etymology

The word nankhatai is derived from the Persian word naan meaning bread and khatai from a Dari Persian word meaning biscuit. Nankhatai has been borrowed into the Burmese language as nankahtaing (နံကထိုင်). It is called by "NaanaHatha" (நானஹத்தா) in Tamil language in East Tamil Nadu & "Gnanakathaa" ( ඤාණකතා) in The Sinhala Language in Sri Lanka. In Afghanistan and Northeast Iran, these biscuits are called kulcha-e-khataye. Kulcha is a type of Afghan, Iranian and Indian bread similar to naan.

History

Nankhatai is believed to have originated in Surat in the 16th century, when Dutch and Indians were the important spice traders. A Dutch couple set up a bakery in Surat to meet the needs of local Dutch residents. When the Dutch left India, they handed over the bakery to an Iranian. The bakery biscuits were disliked by the locals. To save his business he started selling dried bread at low prices. It became so popular that he started drying the bread before selling it. With time, his experimentation with bread inspired him to ultimately invent nankhatai. The main ingredients in nankhatai are refined flour, chickpea flour and semolina. Some other traditional nankhatai recipes do not use chickpea flour.

See also

• List of shortbread biscuits and cookies
• Polvorón