 | |
| Alternative names | Kulcha-i khaṭāʾī |
|---|---|
| Type | Shortbread |
| Place of origin |  India |
| Region or state | Gujarat |
| Associatedcuisine | Indian |
| Main ingredients | Wheat flour, Rice flour, Butter, Powdered Sugar, Milk/Yogurt, Salt, Honey, Baking Powder |
Nankhatai (Bengali:নানখাতাই;Burmese: နံကထိုင်;Hindustani: नानख़टाई(Hindi) /نان خطائی(Urdu);Sinhala:ඤාණකතා;Tamil: நானஹத்தா) areshortbread biscuits originating in theIndian state ofGujarat.[1] They are now popular throughout India and also in the neighbouring countries ofPakistan,Bangladesh,Sri Lanka,Nepal andMyanmar. They have also recently gained popularity inAfghanistan andIran.[1]
The wordnankhatai is derived from theClassical Persianنانِ خطائیnān-i khaṭāʾī,lit. 'Cathayan bread, bread ofCathay [northern China]',[2] composed ofنانnān meaning ‘bread’ andخطائیkhaṭāʾī meaning ‘Cathayan’.[2] The word has been borrowed into theBurmese language asnankahtaing (နံကထိုင်), in theTamil language (in East Tamil Nadu) asnaanahatha (நானஹத்தா), and in theSinhala language (in Sri Lanka) asghanakatha (ඤාණකතා).[3]
In Afghanistan and northeastern Iran, these biscuits are calledکلچهٔ خطائیkulcha-i khaṭāʾī in Persian (kulcha is a type ofAfghan,Iranian andIndian bread similar tonān).[4]
It is also a mispronunciation ofنانِ کوتاہnaan-e-koṭah –shortbread whereنانnaan meansBread, andکوتاہkoṭah means short.[5] So it's a bread which is taken as a snack for settling the 'false' hunger. To support this claim,کوتاہیkoṭahi in Urdu means mistake – shortcoming.کوتاہ نظرکوتاہ بینkoṭah–nazar in Urdu /koṭah–been inPersian means shortsighted, someone who doesn't anticipate complex or far fetched outcomes. So Nan-e-Kotahi became Nan-e-Khatai or simply Nan-Khatai as it is easier to say Khatai, than Kothai.
Nankhatai was also speltnuncatie in English.[2]
Nankhatai is believed to have originated inSurat in the 16th century, when Dutch and Indians were the important spice traders.[6] 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.[7] 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 inventnankhatai.[8][9] The main ingredients in nankhatai arerefined flour,chickpea flour andsemolina.[10] Some othertraditional nankhatai recipes do not use chickpea flour.[11]
The derivation from 'K̲h̲aṭâî,' of Cathay or China is correct. […] Recipes for making 'Nuncaties' are given in many Indian cookery books, but there is no special mention in any of them of Mr. Weir'ssix ingredients; and 'leaven produced from toddy' does not, so far as I know, enter into the composition of these cakes at all.
