Naan Berenji | Eggless Persian Rice Flour Cookies

Naan Berenji / Nan-e-Berenji or the Persian Rice flour cookies is a delicate and beautiful cookie made with rice flour. This is a gluten-free cookie recipe and is flavored with rose water and cardamom.

When shortlisting recipes about what to bake for the alphabet, this Persian rice flour cookie recipe caught my eye. I was really attracted to Nan Berenji's snow-white color and also wanted to experience what a Gluten free cookie would taste like.

I have made butter biscuits in the past that have a bit of rice flour in them, but this is the first time I am baking with all rice flour.

Apart from baking these with just rice flour, the Nan-e-Berenji is flavored with rose water and cardamom. It also has sugar syrup in the dough instead of just adding sugar directly to it.

The recipe for the Persian Rice flour cookies calls for egg yolk, but I wanted to make it eggless. I was debating whether to use yogurt or milk and finally settled down on milk as that is something I have always used in cookies.

When beginning the process of making the Persian Rice Flour cookies, I did not realize that I had to let it chill for about 6 hours. I was short on time as I had a busy evening and hence chilled the dough for just 4 hours.

I was able to easily roll the cookie dough and hence I can safely say that we can bake the cookies after chilling them for about 4 hours. The rose water in the cookie was a pleasant flavor and it combined really well with the cardamom.

My kids did not like the Persian Rice Flour cookies too much and were not crazy about them. I do have to admit that it is sort of an acquired flavor and it does take a little getting used to the rice flour texture in the cookies.

Preparation time - 15 minutes Plus about 4-6 hours of chilling time
Baking time - About 14 - 16 minutes
Difficulty level - easy
Recipe adapted from - Turmeric & Saffron

Ingredients to make Persian Rice flour cookies - Makes about 30 cookies

• Rice flour - 2 cups
• Cardamom powder - ½ tsp
• Sugar - 2 tbsp
• Unsalted Butter - ½ cup (softened)
• Oil - ¼ cup (I used vegetable oil)
• milk - ¼ cup
• Pistachios - a few (finely chopped)

For the sugar syrup -

• Sugar - ¾ cup
• Water - ½ cup
• Rose water - 1 tsp

Procedure to make Naan Berenji -

To make the sugar syrup -

• In a saucepan, add the sugar and water and mix well to dissolve.

• Let the water come to a boil and then simmer until it reduces to about ¾ cup. It took me about 7 to 8 minutes.

• Let the sugar syrup cool down and come to room temperature.

To make the Cookie dough -

• Sift the rice flour and cardamom in a bowl.

• I made the cookie dough in my stand mixer. Whisk the butter, sugar and oil until it is light and creamy.

• Add the milk and mix well.

• Now add the sifted flour mixture and mix.

• Slowly add the sugar syrup to the mixer and keep mixing until all the sugar syrup is used. The dough will be very thin at this point.

• Cover the dough and refrigerate for 4 to 6 hours. We can even refrigerate it overnight.

• Let Naan Berenji cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then carefully transfer it to a cooling rack. Store in an airtight container when completely cooled.

How to store the Rice flour cookies?

Naan Berenji cookies need to be stored in air-tight containers as they get soft much sooner than regular cookies. When I read a little more about it, I learned that rice flour absorbs moisture much sooner than wheat-based cookies and hence it is important to store them airtight.

Allow the cookies to cool entirely and then place them in an airtight container. Even then the cookies will start to become a little softer by day 3. They will still taste great but the texture will be slightly different.

The rice flour cookies freeze great. Place them in a freezer-safe container and freeze them for a month.

Expert tips

• This is a gluten-free cookie made just with rice flour. The flavors are based on the quality of the rice flour. Use fresh white rice flour and do not use glutinous rice flour.
• Chilling the dough is very important so that the rice flour absorbs the flavor and also thickens. This will help in shaping the cookies as well as not letting them spread when baking.
• If you have a cookie stamp, use it to make a pretty pattern on the Nan Berenji.
• Nan-e-Berenji is a very delicate cookie. Do not overbake it. Bake it just until the bottom of the cookies starts to change color. This will allow the rice flour cookies to have a stunning white color.
• Use poppy seeds, crushed rose petals, or any other nuts to garnish the cookies instead of pistachios.

Frequently asked questions

More Gluten-Free snacks

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Recipe

Naan Berenji | Nan-e-Berenji | Persian Rice flour cookies

Naan Berenji or the Persian Rice flour cookies is a delicate and beautiful cookie made with rice flour. This is a gluten free cookie recipe and is flavored with rose water and cardamom.

5 from 47 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Persian

Diet: Gluten Free, Vegetarian

Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 16 minutes minutes

chilling time: 6 hours hours

Total Time: 6 hours hours 31 minutes minutes

Servings: 30

Calories: 106kcal

Author: Sandhya Ramakrishnan

Equipment

• ▢
  Oven
• ▢
  Stand Mixer

Ingredients

• ▢ 2 cups Rice flour
• ▢ ½ tsp Cardamom powder
• ▢ 2 tablespoon Sugar
• ▢ ½ cup Unsalted Butter softened
• ▢ ¼ cup Oil I used vegetable oil
• ▢ ¼ cup milk
• ▢ Few Pistachios finely chopped
• ▢ FOR THE SUGAR SYRUP
• ▢ ¾ cup Sugar
• ▢ ½ cup Water
• ▢ 1 tsp Rose water

Instructions

• In a sauce pan, add the sugar and water and mix well to dissolve.
• Let the water come to a boil and then simmer until it reduces to about ¾ cup. It took me about 7 to 8 minutes.
• Let the sugar syrup cool down and come to room temperature.
• TO MAKE THE COOKIE DOUGH -
• Sift the rice flour and cardamom in a bowl.
• I made the cookie dough in my stand mixer. Whisk the butter, sugar and oil until it is light and creamy.
• Add the milk and mix well.
• Now add the sifted flour mixture and mix.
• Slowly add the sugar syrup to the mixer and keep mixing until all the sugar syrup is used. The dough will be very thin at thin point.
• Cover the dough and refrigerate for 4 to 6 hours. We can even refrigerate it overnight.
• TO BAKE THE COOKIES -
• Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment.
• Scoop a tablespoon full of dough and roll it into a smooth ball. Flatten the balls slightly and place it on the prepared baking sheet.
• With a spoon, make lines on the cookies as shown in the pictures.
• Sprinkle with pistachios and bake for about 15 minutes. Keep an eye on them from about 12 minutes. Make sure that the cookies don't change color. Remove the cookies from the oven when the bottom of the cookies would just start turning light brown.
• Let it cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then carefully transfer it to a cooling rack. Store in airtight container when completely cooled.

Notes

How to store the Rice flour cookies?

Naan Berenji cookies need to be stored in air-tight containers as they get soft much sooner than regular cookies. When I read a little more about it, I learned that rice flour absorbs moisture much sooner than wheat-based cookies and hence it is important to store them airtight.

Allow the cookies to cool entirely and then place them in an airtight container. Even then the cookies will start to become a little softer by day 3. They will still taste great but the texture will be slightly different.

The rice flour cookies freeze great. Place them in a freezer-safe container and freeze them for a month.

Expert Tips

• This is a gluten-free cookie made just with rice flour. The flavors are based on the quality of the rice flour. Use fresh white rice flour and do not use glutinous rice flour.
• Chilling the dough is very important so that the rice flour absorbs the flavor and also thickens. This will help in shaping the cookies as well as not letting them spread when baking.
• If you have a cookie stamp, use it to make a pretty pattern on the Nan Berenji.
• Nan-e-Berenji is a very delicate cookie. Do not overbake it. Bake it just until the bottom of the cookies starts to change color. This will allow the rice flour cookies to have a stunning white color.
• Use poppy seeds, crushed rose petals, or any other nuts to garnish the cookies instead of pistachios.

Nutrition

Calories: 106kcal | Carbohydrates: 14g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 8mg | Sodium: 2mg | Potassium: 11mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 98IU | Calcium: 4mg | Iron: 1mg

Tried this recipe?Mention @Sandhya.Ramakrishnan or tag #MyCookingJourney!