“वेलदोड्याचे शंकरपाळे” (Diamond shaped sweet cookies)

One of my all time favourite Diwali snack is “shankarpala” or “shakkarpara”.Crispy,sweet & crunchy.Ruchira had an ultimate recipe for my favourite sweet snacker!

The only thing that one needs to possess while making a delicacy of any origin is Determination,Patience and Perseverance! So,wrap up all the impulsiveness & extend your tolerance limits.Once, the basics are with you,the journey is relatively smooth.

I have received mails from few amongst the ardent readers of Cookwithmoi appreciating the object of this blog.Progressively,the projects would vary but the Determination,Patience and Perseverance would persist.

On that note,let me introduce the ingredients required to make Veldodyache Shankarpale (cardamom flavoured diamond shaped sweet cookies).

Total Time=Cooking Time +Preparation Time=2 hours 45 min.

Ingredients

• 2 muffin-full bowls of all purpose flour (maida).Aai uses half-half portion of wheat flour & all purpose flour,one may opt for that.However,I followed the book and used maida.
• 1/2 muffin-full bowl of hot pure ghee for kneading the dough (मोहन).
• 1 and half muffin-full bowls of sugar.The quantity of sugar might seem to be more,but the sugar in US is processed & less sweet than the coarser one in India.However,I would suggest that readers must use their  discretion.
• Salt to taste
• 1/8 muffin-full bowl of milk to knead the dough.
• Pure ghee for frying-I used a combination of ghee and vegetable cooking oil instead of entire quantity of pure ghee.
• 1-2 tsps cardamom powder-(my addition)
• 2 pinches of eating soda (my addition)

Knead the Dough,Origami & Deep frying

After adding soda,salt,hot ghee,cardamom powder and sugar to the maida,I mixed it well with hands.I prefer using a flat cookie tray or likewise so that one can play with the dough enough without getting stuff around dirty.I kneaded the mixture with milk (water is also fine).Then,I set the dough aside for 2 hours.

2 hours later,I divided the dough into small balls @ 5 nos.Then,Rohan rolled every ball (one at a time) into a flat (not very thin) roti.Using the Paula Deen Pastry Wheel,cut it criss-cross to form numerous rhombus.That’s the conventional shape,any other would also be fine.

The ghee-vegetable oil mixture had been heating over a medium-high flame.To verify that the temperature was optimum,I made a very tiny-miny ball of the dough and pushed it in.The ball rose up soon.

I slowly put the diamond shaped roti pieces into the oil-ghee pan that Rohan passed on to me.Allowed them to fry until golden or a little darker would also do for me since they taste really awesome.However,take care that they don’t burn.

 

 

 

 

Laid them over tissue to take off all the excess ghee.Finally,the perfect bite…crispy & crunchy,sweet & yummy!

 

 

As Madhulika says,Enjoyyy the Diwali Pahat (early hours of post mid-night-early morning of Diwali) with loved ones :)

“कणिक-बेसन-तांदुळाच्या पिठीच्या चकल्या” (Broken Mixed Grain Fritters)

Well,sadly the “faral”(diwali snack making) get together did not quite happen.Shraddha fell ill,Preity went sight seeing while my back is aching back to back.So,the plan got shelved.

However,its “Dhantryodashi” or “Dhanteras” today.Welcoming Diwali with sadness would be the last thing on my mind.Hence,I geared up for the day enthusiastically.

Since my friends weren't coming my plans to prepare “Rawa-kele” (semolina-banana) cake had to be re-scheduled.I decided to make wheat & rice –chickpea fritters (चकली) and sweet diamond shaped cookies (शंकरपाळे).

These recipes are as difficult as they could be,so get ready :)

So,I began with “कणिक-बेसन-तांदुळाच्या पिठीच्या चकल्या” (Broken Mixed Grain Fritters).Wheat based fritters are not very common.Most of us know about mixed grain ones.However,the roasted mixed grain flour that Aai had sent was very little,so opted for this recipe from Ruchira!

Total Time=Cooking Time+Preparation Time=30-40 minutes.

Ingredients

• 2 muffin-full bowls of wheat flour
• 1 muffin-full bowl of chickpea/gram flour (my addition)
• 1 muffin-full bowl of rice flour (my addition)
• salt to taste
• red chili powder ( add as per taste)
• asafoetida
• turmeric powder
• cumin seeds and cumin powder (i added both,you can add either of it)
• white sesame ( i used white ones since nothing in particular was mentioned)
• coriander powder (my addition)
• hot oil to be added for kneading the dough.
• oil for frying-I baked them so skipped some calories!
• Kirkland's granulated garlic powder (my addition)

Merry Go Straight This Time

As suggested by the book I mixed all the dry ingredients into a muslin cloth and tied it (knotting is similar to the one for sweet yogurt).I put it into another container and transferred the whole arrangement into pressure cooker.Let it steam for 10 min without the whistle.

Then,I moved it our and untied the knot.The solid pumic stone like mass was broken into fine powder and kneaded into a dough with usage of hot oil (hot oil is my suggestion,you may use oil at room temperature too).

If it were India,I would traditionally use a special instrument used for making such kind of fritters called “सोऱ्या” (pronounced as SORYA).However,I did not have it in US.One gets such tools at some Indian stores for minimum 25 $ which is sold in India for 100 Rs max (@ 2 USD)! Cannot afford such splurge! Instead would prefer to buy expensive cushion sets from KOHL’s !

I used an icing attachment instead.Could not get the concentric rounds through it,so settled in for Broken ones! In fact,lot of people make it that way and sell it too!

After finishing the making the “raw fritters” ,I moved them into the oven into the Broiling mode for some minutes.

Voila…the tasty and crunchy broiled Indian fritters are ready!

Feast over the broken Chakli! :)