Nan Berenji | Persian Rice Cookie

In the Persian cuisine, there are different types of famous and popular cookies. Nane-e-Berenji or rice cookie is one of the most delicious and traditional Persian cookies. This type of cookie is usually served during the Persian New Year (Norouz) and other celebrations or funerals. It is originally a local cookie of Kermanshah, which is also cooked in other Iranian cities like Ghazvin. It’s popularity stems from the fact that it has a really magnificent taste and it’s quite crunchy, giving you a pleasant feeling when you try it.

Persian Rice Cookies | Noon Berenji

In the Persian cuisine, there are different types of famous and popular cookies. Nane-e-Berenji or rice cookie is one of the most delicious and traditional Persian cookies.

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Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Preparing the dough 4 hours hrs

Total Time 4 hours hrs 30 minutes mins

Course Snack

Cuisine persian

Servings 8 people

Ingredients

  

• 260 g rice flour
• 160 grams solid oil (a type of oil which is in a solid state at a normal temperature, usually gained from animals such as cows and sheep)
• 160 grams lump sugar powder
• 2 egg yolks (simply separate the yolk from the white)
• 1 tablespoon saffron
• ½ teaspoon cardamom powder
• ⅛ teaspoon salt
• ¼ cup rosewater
• purslane powder or poppy seeds (used for topping)

Instructions

 

• Take solid oil out of the fridge. Let its temperature lower to the temperature of the room. This helps the oil to be mixed more easily.
• Mix the oil with lump sugar powder so that it gets a soft texture. Add the yolks one by one to the mixed oil and mix each one of the yolks separately with the oil. Remove the remaining oil from the mixer blades and add it to the rest of the mixed ingredients. This is important because the amounts of the ingredients need to be precise and not even a little bit less or more than the recipe.
• Add the salt and cardamom powder to the rice flour and stir them. Sift the combination two or three times and add it to the dough.
• Add thee e rose water and saffron to the dough and knead them for 5 to 10 minutes until it gets consistent (you can brew the saffron before adding it by doing which you give the cookies a better color).
• The mixed dough must be left in a fridge fir 4 hours to rest. After that period take it out of the fridge and let the temperature become warmer for about an hour.
• When the dough id ready, separate and Take walnut-sized balls from the dough. Rub it with your fingers in order to remove the extra air.
• Roll the dough in to small one inch balls and flatten the cookies in to a small disc. Rub any cracks on the edges in order to fix them (for shaping the cookies, you can use sweet molds or the edge of a knife or a fork to make overlapping arch-shaped indentations marks on the top).
• Turn on the oven and let it heat for 15 minutes (and not more). Put the cookies in the oven tray (you don’t need to grease the tray beforehand). Sprinkle the cookies with poppy seeds or purslane powder and bake them on the middle rack of the oven for 15 minutes, by 150 centigrade heat.
• Cookies are ready when the bottom and edges begin to turn gold or light golden.

10 Helpful Tips for Cooking Rice Cookies (Persian Rice Cookie)

• After the Rice Cookies are cooked, do not remove them from the tray, but wait for them to cool down.
• To experience the original taste of Nan Berenji, you’d better use Kermanshahi Solid oil. That is the original type of oil used in the recipe.
• Flour, is a very important element of this cookie. It has to be sifted for several times beforehand. The flour also needs to be completely dry and soft.
• You can change the color of the cookies by adding saffron or chocolate powder, or add nothing and make white plain ones. Adding saffron gives it a really magnificent color.
• Note that the color of saffron cookies gets lighter when they cool down. If you wish to have a darker yellow color, add more saffron to the ingredients.
• Using the amount of ingredients mentioned above, you can prepare about a kilo of Rice Cookies.
• This is a vary crunchy type of cookie, so be really careful when separating them from the oven tray.
• Covering the surface of the ash tray with some oily paper will make it easier to separate the cookies from the tray. This will also not allow the bottom of the cookies to get dark.
• The oven needs to be heated before cooking the cookies.
• This type of cookie will keep in a fridge for a long time.

To serve Rice Cookies, You must know these 2 facts:

Sometimes Rice Cookies (Nan Berinji) are found too dry, so most of the time, a kind of drink, usually tea is served next to it.

You can serve these cookies at breakfast, or as a mid-day snack just like other sweet Persian desserts like Halva.

6 Other Iranian Cookies

Sweets are quite popular in Iran and it could be said that each city has its own kind of cookie. Usually rich and creamy sweets and cookies are not originally from Iran but nowadays they are kind of popular.

There are many other Iranian cookies which you can try such as Kolooche (from the North of Iran), Komaj, Ghotab, Kolompe, Haji Badoomi, Kak and Yazdi Cup Cake.

What Are the Features of a Great Nun Berenji?

When you are going to buy these little cookies, you should consider some factors filtering the low quality cookies. As it has been mentioned, this sweet is originally from Kermanshah and the best nan berenjis are found in this city if you are looking for a souvenir from Iran. Note that the ingredients of this cookie are changed in proportion in big shops of Kermanshah. A great noon berenji should:

• Smell freshly
• Be delicious and melts in the mouth perfectly
• Be in a complete packaging and be covered completely
• The color should be slightly yellow
• You should be able to distinguish the ingredients’ flavor in it