Pre-heat oven to 180°C (160°C fan-forced). Line a large baking tray with baking paper.
Sift flour into a medium bowl. Add semolina, baking powder, cardamom, salt and sugar. Mix gently.
Add the melted ghee and mix with a wooden spoon. Gently gather the mixture with your hand and knead into a soft dough.
Take a tablespoon of the dough and roll it into a ball (flat at the bottom and rounded on top) about 2 cm high. Place on the prepared baking tray. Repeat with the rest of the dough, placing the dough balls 5-6cm apart.
Bake in the pre-heated oven for 18-20 minutes until cooked and a shade darker.
Remove from the oven and cool completely before storing in an air-tight glass jar.
Notes
Make sure your ghee is not completely liquid. I like to place solid ghee in the microwave for 30-40 seconds to get softened-partially melted ghee.* Powdered sugar is icing sugar, not icing mixture (which has a thickener mixed with the sugar). Use icing sugar or powdered sugar. I use raw sugar and blitz it a couple of times in my food processor/blender to make powdered raw sugar. It is slightly brown and adds a wonderful caramel note to the naankhatai.** Ghee can be replaced by butter. Follow the same partially-melted method for butter as well.The dough should be pliable, just firm enough and prone to slight crumbling (see pictures). This is the perfect dough consistency for this shortbread.Baking on a silicon mat provides the shortbread with more grip as they bake preventing them from spreading out, allowing for nice high cookies.