Have you started your Diwali preparations yet? If you have, that means you have taken out your Diwali recipes.
How about a healthy karanji recipe using whole wheat flour?
Diwali, the festival of light is celebrated in the honor of lord Rama celebrating his victory over the demon king Ravana. The celebration of such a momentous occasion wouldn’t be complete without a yummy feast. And naturally a feast wouldn’t be complete without some delicious sweets.
There are many popular sweets, or mithais that are prepared during Diwali. All the members of the family get together to prepare these mouth watering dishes and offer it to goddess Laxmi during Laxmi Pooja. After that, the moms have a tough time trying to save some for the relatives and neighbors.
So how about making this Diwali even sweeter?
Today I bring to you a famous Diwali sweet dish from Maharashtra – Karanji or gujia recipe. It is also known as Gujia in some northern states, Pedakiya in Bihar or Ghugra. It is a dish that is prepared with fresh coconut dumplings and sugar or jaggery.
This karanji recipe also known as kajjikayalu or karjikai, calls for all-purpose flour for the dough, but I have prepared it with wheat flour. That and the goodness of jaggery in it makes it an ideal evening snack for your little one. So let us learn how to make karanji.
Karanji recipe for kids:
Dry roast whole wheat flour till it emanates an aroma. Keep aside. To make the filling, heat a pan. Add coconut, jaggery and stir well till the jaggery melts. Add in cardamom. Add dry fruits and switch off the stove.
To make the dough, mix flour and salt in a bowl. Make a firm dough by adding small quantity of water. Let it rest covered for 30 minutes.
To make karanjis, knead the dough well. Roll out small poori sizes.
Keep stuffing on one side of the puri and seal the edges. You can shape the edges using fork.
Heat oil in a pan and deep fry karanjis till they turn golden on both sides.
Lip smacking, hot and crunchy karanjis are ready to be served.
- Wheat flour - 1 cup
- Coconut - 1 and ½ cup
- Jaggery - ½ cup
- Cardamom - to taste
- Oil - for deep frying
- Water - for kneading the dough
- Dry fruits - cashew nuts, almonds finely chopped
- Slightly roast the wheat flour for a minute or so till you a get a nice aroma of the flour. This is done to reduce the raw flavor of the flour.Let it cool down.
- Heat a pan, add in the coconut, jaggery. Keep the flame low and mix well till the jaggery gets melted.
- Add in cardamom or elaichi and mix well.
- Lastly, add the dry fruits and switch off the flame.
- In a bowl add in the flour and salt. Mix well.
- Add in water little by little to make a firm dough.
- Do not add more water otherwise the dough will be sticky.
- Cover it with a cloth and allow it to rest for 30 minutes.
- Knead the dough again before making the balls.
- Take a small ball of dough and start rolling into a medium size poori.
- Stuff the filling on the one side of the dough and fold it in.
- Seal the edges so that the filling does not spill out while frying.
- Give shapes using forks and trim the excess dough.
- Repeat with the rest of the dough.
- Meanwhile take a deep pan and add oil.
- When the oil is hot, fry the karanjis one by one till golden brown on both the sides.
- Absorb the oil using a tissue paper.
- Poppy seeds can be used along with the coconut mixture.
- Raisins can also be used for the dumplings.
- The dough should not be sticky it should be firm so that it is easy to roll.
- If you have a karanji cutter you can give shape with that too.
- Store in an airtight container.
You can also try the thinai halwa and shankarpali recipe this Diwali.
Do try karanji recipe and enjoy with family n friends this Diwali. If you have any simple dough recipes that your family prepares for Diwali, don’t forget to share it with us!
