Diwali is the biggest Hindu festival. A time for friends and family to rejoice. Indian sweet market is at its prime. Also, a time to give gifts, sweets, and buy silver and gold. We make many Indian sweets for this festival. You will see many nut based burfi and different types of ladoos in sweet shops across India. Traditionally, Sindhi community makes Chikki or layii and khorak/majoon for pooja.Indian praline is an easy dessert and you can make it with different ingredients too.The below brittle recipe is made with Bengal gram dal or chutney dal. It is also called as dalai dal or puffed chana. Hence, we call it Puff chana chikki or chana dal layi.
Most people associate pralines with Lonavala near Pune. This quaint little hill station is a stop halt on Mumbai Pune expressway and offers great refreshments. Most people buy all kinds of chikki after having a break.In fact many people call it lovingly Lonavala chikki.
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We also call this as Bengal gram dal/chutney dal/Dalia or daria dal/puffed chana. Dalia is chana dal, husked, split and roasted. You might think most recipes with chana dal will be a curry but it is not so. ake a chana dal chutney in South India.
It is commonly used as a thickener with chutneys such as coriander chutney and also used in appetizers like dal vada. We also make a chana dal chutney in South India.
How to make daliya chikki with Jaggery ?
It is very easy to make chikki with sugar, the only thing to be done is to caramelize the sugar and then add your main ingredient , like chana dalia, puffed rice , peanuts etc. However with chikki make only out of jaggery,you need to let the jaggery melt and cook it slowly and keep on testing for its readiness. To test whether its ready or now, you can drop a few droplets in a bowl of cold water and check if it crystalizes in a few seconds. If not, then continue to cook for few more minutes on low flame. We have used a combination of jaggery and sugar below but you may use only jaggery.
Also, the if you choose to use the desi or the pure jaggery that is already dark brown in color then the color of the chikki will be more dark, hence you can replace some jaggery with sugar to make it easy to cook and also have a good color.
Ingredients
- Roasted Bengal gram or chutney dal/ chana dal
- Sugar (replace sugar by jaggery if you like)
- Palm sugar or jaggery
- Ghee or coconut oil if vegan
refer to recipe card for details.
How to make roasted chana dal chikki recipe?
- Roast the puffed chana dal for few minutes. Keep it aside.
- In a pan, heat ghee and add jaggery to it. Cook the jaggery with or without sugar. Add cardamom powder and keep stirring constantly until it dissolves completely.
3. Drop few droplets of jaggery in water to see if it crystalizes. Once it hardens ,it is ready to make chikki.
4. Add the roasted chana dal to jaggery
5. Roll it on a sheet after covering with baking sheet.
6. Make incisions and cut roasted chana chikki into pieces once it cools down.
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Equipment
- Frying pan
- Rolling pin
Storage
Store at room temperature in an air tight container. It stays upto 7 -10 days. Use oil instead of ghee to make it vegan.
Variations
You can make it with sugar or jaggery completely as per your choice. You can also add a pinch of cinnamon powder if you like.
Til chikki, peanut chikki, murmura laddoo are associated with Makar Sankranti or Uttarayan festival.Not many know we Sindhis make all above versions during Diwali along with varo.
Looking for more praline recipes ? Click on links below
- Rewari/sesame seed truffles
- Coconut chikki
- Dry fruit chikki or varo
- Oats chikki
- 5 seeds praline
- Peanut chikki
- Puffed rice brittle
- Til patti/sesame seed praline
- Tip: Crush the brittle and add it to ice cream. It tastes divine.
What are some other chana dal recipes?
Chana dal is quite a staple across India. You can make various lentil recipes for main course as well make make starters out of it. I like to add heeng or asafoetida when using chana dal for curries because it helps you digest it easily. However, heeng is not gluten free.
Roasted chana dal chikki recipe
Equipment
- frying pan
Ingredients
- 1 ⅓ cup roasted bengal gram or chutney dal
- ¼ cup sugar replace sugar by jaggery if required
- ¼ cup jaggery
- 1 tablespoon ghee or clarified butter Use oil for dairy free/vegan option
- 1 teaspoon cardamom powder
Instructions
- Dry roast chutney dal in a heavy bottomed pan for 2 minutes.Keep it aside.
- In a heavy bottom pan, add ghee and sugar so that it starts to melt.
- Add jaggery and cook for 2 minutes on low flame,till it forms a homogeneous mixture
- Keep stirring on a medium flame till sugar gets caramelized and you get a boil.
- Drop few droplets of mix in bowl of water, if it crystalizes, then its ready.
- Add cardamom powder to it along with roasted chutney dal and turn off the heat.
- Pour the chikki mixture on a greased plate/baking sheet and roll with a rolling pin to even it.
- While it is still warm cut 1' squares incisions and let it cool.
- Break into pieces once it cools off
- Store brittle in a airtight container.
Food safety
- Cook to a minimum temperature of 165 °F (74 °C)
- Don't leave food sitting out at room temperature for extended periods
- Never leave cooking food unattended
- Use oils with high smoking point to avoid harmful compounds
- Always have good ventilation when using a gas stove
Please share your inputs..