Butter Cookies/Indian Bakery Biscuits/Naankhatai And Valentine's Day Wishes

Happy Valentine’s Day! :) Love is not finding someone to live with; it's finding someone you can't live without. 

Before moving ahead I will like to share some facts about Valentine’s Day.

• More than 36 million heart-shaped boxes of chocolate are sold for Valentine's Day each year.
• About 1 billion Valentine's Day cards are exchanged in USA alone each year. That's the largest seasonal card-sending occasion of the year, next to Christmas.
• 73% of people who buy flowers for Valentine's Day are men, while only 27 percent are women.
• Every Valentine's Day, the Italian city of Verona, where Shakespeare's lovers Romeo and Juliet lived, receives about 1,000 letters addressed to Juliet.
•  About 3 percent of pet owners will give Valentine's Day gifts to their pets.
• The most fantastic gift of love is the Taj Mahal in India. It was built by Mughal Emperor Shahjahan as a memorial to his wife.

So some exchange gifts, some plan for holidays...I have the simple formula- A way to man’s heart is through his stomach.  We both are not huge Valentine’s Day celebrator; who needs ONLY one day to celebrate love. We both never go out on Valentine’s Day, not even for dinner. Reason??? Well, all the restaurants are overcrowded and way too pricey. By the way who all are watching India vs Pakistan tonight???

Butter Cookies or Indian naankhatai are my all time favourite ones. I know they are loaded with butter and sugar, but little calories on a special day is okay ;). If you have ever tasted Indian cookies, or bakery biscuits you would know how amazing they are. Crunchy, buttery and perfectly sweet with hint of cardamom (ilaychi).  These are eggless ones-have with cold glass of milk, warm cup of coffee/tea.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter

½ Cup white sugar

1 cup All purpose flour/maida

Pinch of salt

1/2 teaspoon cardamom powder/elyachi

2 tablespoons milk

Method:

Mix butter and sugar till it becomes creamy and light.

Add the flour, salt, cardamom powder and milk at once and mix until combined.

Cover the dough with cling film and keep in fridge for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 350F/180C.

Line a baking sheet with baking/grease proof paper.

Take 2 tablespoon dough and form it into ball. Flatten the ball and form into disc or Pattie. Do the same with remaining dough.

Bake for 22-25 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through. When they start to brown, they are done. Have an eye as they can go from brown to burn very fast!

Transfer to a cooling rack for 15-20 minutes.

Notes:

Make sure every ingredient is at room temperature.

You can also roll out the dough and cut the cookies into desired shape.

If you dont like cardamom powder, feel free to use vanilla essence.

You can also add chopped nuts in these cookies.

Every oven is different, make sure to keep an eye. Very light brown is what you are looking for.

Makes 30-35 cookies and can be stored in a airtight container for 2 weeks.