One Dough - Four Cookies (Nankhatai)
This recipe is amazing. You make one batch of dough, split it up into bowls, throw in some basic add ins and voila! Four types of cookies from the same batch of dough. The cookies taste different and look different but can be baked on the same tray, at the same temperature, for the same time! And let me tell you how delicious they all are.
It seriously couldn’t get any easier! This recipe is perfect if you want to make a dessert tray, cookie boxes, or you simply just want four types of cookies with minimal effort. People will think you spent hours baking batches of cookies, when you really didn’t. That can be our secret!
You place the unbaked cookies together all on the same trays to bake about 2 inches apart. They bake up at the same temperature for the same amount of time!
If you want to make these with me step by step, watch this video and we can bake them together!
Recipe for One Dough - 4 Cookies:
Ingredients Needed:
Base Dough Recipe:
1 cup butter softened (room temperature)
1 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 eggs
3/4 cup fine ground semolina (if you want to omit this, then use a total of 3 cups of flour for the entire recipe instead of 2 ¼ as listed below)
2 ¼ cups all purpose flour *see note above
1-2 teaspoons vanilla
Add ins to make variations:
Swirls - 5-6 drops red food color, 1/2 tablespoon cocoa powder
**you can omit the cocoa powder and just use whatever colors you want ex. green and red food coloring for festive swirls
Cardamom with Nuts - 1/8-1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom, 1-2 tablespoons chopped nuts
**you can omit the nuts and just put a drop of food color on the top
Funfetti - 1-2 tablespoons sprinkles
Coconut Jam thumbprints - 3-4 tablespoons unsweetened shredded coconut, a few tablespoons of jam
**you can omit the jam and use Nutella
Servings Made: 36-42 cookies
Time to Prep: 20 minutes
Time to Cook: 20 minutes
How to Make:
Preheat oven to 325°F. Line a few baking trays with parchment paper. Cream butter and sugar together with an electric mixer (about 3 minutes) until mixture looks lighter in color and fluffy.
Add flour, semolina and baking powder. Mix well and add vanilla and eggs. Mix until a soft dough forms. If the dough is sticking to your hands, add 1 tablespoon of flour at a time until it is soft but not sticky.
Divide dough into 5-6 parts and place each part in a bowl.
Add the following to each bowl of dough (you should have six bowls. see below):
Swirls
leave one bowl plain
add 1/2 tablespoon cocoa powder to one bowl (or just use another color of food coloring if you wish)
add 5-6 drops red food color to one bowl
Funfetti
add 2 teaspoons of sprinkles to one bowl
Thumbprints
add 1 tablespoon coconut to one bowl
Cardamom/Nuts
add 1/8-1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom to one bowl
Use your hands and mix each part of dough until add ins combined well.
Cardamom/Nuts - Place 1-2 tablespoons of chopped nuts into a shallow dish. Make small balls of your cardamom dough and gently press each ball into the plate of nuts. Place on your baking tray 2 inches apart.
Jam/Coconut - Place 1-2 tablespoons of shredded coconut into a shallow dish. Make small balls of your coconut dough and roll each ball in the bowl of coconut to coat outside. Place balls onto baking trays 2 inches apart. Use your finger tip or a small spoon to make a small cavity/indent in each ball. Place 1/4-1/2 teaspoon jam in the indent.
Funfetti - Place 1-2 tablespoons of sprinkles into a shallow dish. Make small balls of your sprinkle dough and gently press ball into dish of sprinkles. Place onto baking tray 2 inches apart.
Swirls - The remaining three bowls of dough will be used to make the swirl cookies. Make small balls of each of the three colors of dough. Place one ball of each color into the palm of your hands and gently press together. Using your other palm on top, gently apply pressure and rotate your hand quickly over the balls to create the swirls.
Pro tip - as you handle the dough, the butter inside will continue to soften so try to work efficiently. You can place the dough in the fridge for a few mins if you find it very soft and the swirls not coming together. Place on baking tray about 2 inches apart.
Bake trays for 17-20 minutes until edges are lightly browned. Cool completely on wire racks.
These freeze well after baking. You can store them in an airtight container or freezer bag for up to a month.
Enjoy!
