Pistachio Almond Chikki Chewy Bites is my attempt at making a dry fruit chikki in a jaggery base, instead of the traditional base of sugar, specially for dry fruit chikki. I decided to try this base, as I prefer the more nutritious jaggery as compared to sugar. No Makar Sankranti is complete without a bite of chikki, the traditional sweet of the Makar Sankranti festival. The chewy or crispy taste of the chikki depends on the quality of jaggery as well as the duration of cooking the jaggery. Jaggery from Kolhapur, works best for chikki, specially the golden colored jaggery. This time I had more darker colored jaggery, hence the color of the chikki is also slightly more darker than I would have preferred. I opted to also undercook the jaggery a bit, in order to keep it chewy, as preferred by my family members. The chewy texture would also do less damaging to the teeth when biting, as opposed to the extremely crispy traditional texture of chikki. Feeling a little creative, added a few drops of rose water were added to give a freshness of rose in the chikki,
Enjoy the fragrant, colorful, chewy and jaggery based pistachio almond chikki chewy bites, which is extremely quick to make. One can have a fresh batch of chikki in different flavors made every couple of days, since it takes very little effort and time. Check out the recipes for Sesame Chikki, Chocolate Walnut Chikki and Daliya Chikki from earlier blog posts. Tomorrow I plan to make the good old Til Chikki in the extreme crispy flavor, as that is how I like it, and sankranti is not auspicious enough, till one has had the combination of til and jaggery तिल गुड़!
Wishing everyone a happy cheerful Makar Sankranti and a season of good results and good tiding, and enjoy the display of Pistachio Almond Chikki Chewy Bites in a flying feather shape, akin to a flying kite!
[shopeat_ingredients][/shopeat_ingredients]
| Prep Time | 2 |
| Cook Time | 12 |
| Passive Time | 5 |
| Servings |
pieces
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- 5 tsp Ghee Unmelted
- 1 cup Whole Pistachio Roasted and Salted preferable
- 1/3 cup Crushed Pistachio Roasted and Salted preferable
- 1/2 cup Slvered almonds
- 3 tsp water
- 1/4 tsp Rose Water Optional
- 1 1/2 cup Jaggery Thinly sliced
Ingredients
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|
- Grease the chopping board, or a plate, or sheet of aluminum foil or wax paper with some ghee and keep it aside.
- In a thick bottom pan, put the ghee to melt on a medium flame gas.
- Once it melts, add the jaggery and water and let it melt. Keep stirring on medium flame, till the color becomes dark brown like a melted chocolate for about 6-7 minutes. If you want it more crispier heat the jaggery for about 8-9 minutes.
- Once the jaggery is cooked well, reduce the flame to the minimum and quickly add whole pistachios, crushed pistachios, silvered almonds and rose water and mix everything into a nice big lump, stirring for a minute or she on the gas.
- Quickly transfer the mixture on to the greased board. Using a roller pin, roll down into as far thin as you can roll, without breaking from between. Alternatively, press it with the base of steel bowl to flatten it further.
- Cool for about five minutes, and make diamond pieces, by first making vertical lines, and then turning the board to an angle, and making diamond kite shapes.
- Cool completely for 20 minutes, and then store in an airtight container.
Tips
- The type of jaggery you use will also determine the texture of the chikki. To make it crisper, cook the jaggery for at least 9 minutes on medium low flame.
- For Vegan recipe, add oil, instead of ghee.
- Add cashews, split chickpeas, peanuts, coconut, whole almonds as optional flavors.
- If the chikki is not as crispy, or too sticky, just reheat the whole lump adding a tsp of water and cook for 2-3 minutes, till it binds well.
Instinct Factor
- Adding rose water was a result of listening to my instincts! Be creative and add some essences to give it a different feel!
Feel Factor
If you cannot fly kites in USA, at least lets have chikki and celebrate the Sankranti in some way! The roasted salty pistachio flavor goes well with jaggery and my family appreciated the chewy texture of this and I loved the green color of pistachios in the chikki!
