Thursday, October 25, 2012

Karjikai | Kajjikayalu | Karanji Recipe | Diwali Sweets

 As a kid I never used to like sweets and savories always used to win over sweets for me.There were still very few sweets like Karjikai, Rasgulla, Ariselu and few others which I used to eat with out any complaints as I used to feel them mildly sweet for my taste buds when compared to other sweets. But its quite different now and I actually started liking sweets and can eat most of the sweet varieties.
Navratri is finally over and I was successful with my nine day Navratri recipe marathon and I see many bloggers have already started posting the recipes for Diwali.This time even I wanted to post few recipes for Diwali which would be helpful to many of my readers and friends.This is my first recipe post for Diwali and you would see many more Diwali specials in my blog,so stay tuned and get ready to make a feast for this Diwali.
Karjikai or Karanji is a sweet which is usually prepared during Ganesh Chaturthi or Diwali.It is basically a thinly rolled chapati made up of maida which is stuffed with a sweet filling made up of fried gram and nuts and then shaped into a half moon using a mould and deep fried until the outer layer is crisp.As the sweetness does not over power in this one can easily gobble at least a couple of them at one go.This is my one of the favorite sweets and I hope you also like it and try for this Diwali.
Karjikai | Karanji | Kadubu | Sweet Samosa Recipe:
shelf life: up to 2 weeks & makes: roughly 15-18

Ingredients:

Oil,for deep frying
for outer covering:
1 heaped cup Maida
1/4 cup fine Rawa
a pinch of Salt

for filling:
1/2 cup Fried gram(chutney dal) powder
1/3 cup grated dry Coconut
1/2 cup + 3 tbsp powdered Sugar
1 tbsp Poppy seeds
3 tbsp Cashew nuts,finely chopped
1/4 tsp Cardamom powder
Method:
  • Mix maida,rawa,salt with enough water to form a stiff dough.The dough should be like the consistency of puri dough.
  • Cover it with a wet cloth and keep it aside for half an hour.
  • Mean while mix all the ingredients for filling fried gram powder,grated dry coconut,powdered sugar,cardamom powder,poppy seeds and chopped cashew nuts nicely in a bowl and keep it aside.
  • Now,knead the dough well again to make the dough soft and pliable.
  • Meanwhile heat oil in a kadai for deep frying the karanjis. 
  • Make small gooseberry sized balls with the dough and roll it out into very thin chapathis of 4"  dia.They should be very thin,so roll as thin as possible.You can sprinkle maida on the rolling board for easy rolling.
  • Take the karanji mould and slightly grease the edges with little oil and place the rolled chapati on top of it.
  • Place 1 tbsp of filling on one side of the partition and wet the edges slightly with water and close it and seal well.
  • Remove the extra portion hanging out from the mould and keep them aside.Repeat the same process for the remaining dough.
  • If you do not have karjikayi mould you can even take a sharp edged 3" steel lid and cut the chapati using it and then keep the filling inside and close it to the other side forming a half moon and take a fork and make the impressions around the corners or pinch the edges with your fingers or you can even pinch the edges and roll them inwards to form a beautiful pattern.See the image below for better understanding about how to shape them.

  • Drop 2-3 at one time slowly in to the oil and fry them on reduced flame(low-medium) till crisp and golden in color.Try to pour the hot oil from the sides using the slotted spoon on top of the karanji which helps in puffing up nicely.
  • Drain them using a slotted spoon to a kitchen napkin and let them cool completely.
Store them in an air tight container.They store good up to 2 weeks.
Notes:
  1. The dough for the outer layer should be mixed stiff which makes the karanji crisp.
  2. We generally made the outer layer dough with only chiroti rava(fine variety).You can even make it with all purpose flour or a mix of wheat flour and all purpose flour.
  3. Various kind of fillings can be made like rawa-dry fruits filling,dry fruits filling,mawa filling which I would try to post sometime later.

33 comments:

  1. Very nicely done prathy and looks very inviting. Clicks are awesome

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  2. I also have a mold like this but never could use it. will try after seeing this post. lovely treat.

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  3. I too have this in my Diwali list. Ur version looks perfect! Lovely clicks

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  4. enjoyed your navratri recipes and looking forward to Diwali ones now....karjikai looks so yum ..so drool worthy ....nice clicks

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  5. This looks yumm and love the clicks

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  6. oh how I remember my school vacations that I spent in Chennai with my grandparents & family. Karjikai was always prepared lovingly for me. This I really want to take a bite of NOW!
    Love it.

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  7. Very inviting.. nicely done
    great-secret-of-life.blogspot.com

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  8. Karanji looks mouthwatering. I am not familiar with this filling. I will try next time. I always make filling with semolina and coconut with dry fruits.

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  9. I love your clicks and karjikai is very memorable sweet for me. Amma makes it for deepavali, but I must say, I wish we had the karjikai making mould, makes like easy.

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  10. MIL's trademark sweet..we luv this and never miss during diwali

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  11. Looks so crispy n yummy... Bookmarking

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  12. Simply delicious and perfect sweet for the upcoming Diwali Festival.
    Deepa

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  13. Seriously tempting!! Ages since I made these.

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  14. My grandma's signature sweet, she used to make this karanjis every diwali, prefectly shaped and looks absolutely pretty.

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  15. Wow.. Yummy. I made the same last year..Love them any time.

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  16. lovely clicks and nice recipe prathiba. i have never tasted this.wish to have it :)

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  17. wow beautifully made Prathy,i dont have this mould.So mine came not much gud...wanna grab one from the screen:)

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  18. Your Karjikai looks beautiful. Stunning pics!

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  19. Karanji looks nice and A Very Happy Diwali.

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  20. These look absolutely amazing!

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  21. Karanji looks awesome! I love the clicks!

    Shobha

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  22. Hi Prathy, this happens to be my favorite sweet after unniappam. My mom makes it with a mawa filling but in US we do not get fresh mawa. Kindly tell me what is fried gram flour? Is it urad daal?

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    Replies
    1. Hi Minnie fried gram is nothing but the one we use it for chutney. I think In US it’s available as Dalia in Indian stores

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  23. Hi,
    Can we use fresh coconut instead of dessicated?

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  24. Here i found nice environment to get new ideas and views and the i have read the comments of this blog and these are really nice and it is glad to comment here.

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  25. I’ve desired to post about something similar to this on one of my blogs and this has given me an idea. Cool Mat.
    keramiek tafelblad

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  26. I am sure this post has touched all the internet users, its really really fastidious paragraph on building up new blog.

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  27. Wow yummy recipe. Thanx for sharing wil try tmrw. Do I need to put chasni on top once they r fried. Pls confirm.

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Hugs,
Prathy