Nankhatai

Nankhatai

Alternative names	Kulcha-i khaṭāʾī
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; Burmese: နံကထိုင်; Hindustani: नानख़टाई (Hindi) / نان خطائی (Urdu); Sinhala: ඤාණකතා; Tamil: நானஹத்தா) 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 Classical Persian نانِ خطائی nān-i khaṭāʾī, lit. 'Cathayan bread, bread of Cathay [northern China]', composed of نان nān meaning ‘bread’ and خطائی khaṭāʾī meaning ‘Cathayan’. The word has been borrowed into the Burmese language as nankahtaing (နံကထိုင်), in the Tamil language (in East Tamil Nadu) as naanahatha (நானஹத்தா), and in the Sinhala language (in Sri Lanka) as ghanakatha (ඤාණකතා).

In Afghanistan and northeastern Iran, these biscuits are called کلچهٔ خطائی kulcha-i khaṭāʾī in Persian (kulcha is a type of Afghan, Iranian and Indian bread similar to nān).

Nankhatai was also spelt nuncatie in English.

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