Kaju Katli

I have loved the Kaju Katlis made at the mithai shops, in particular, places like Shree Mithai in Spencer Plaza, Chennai. For that matter, probably Kaju Katlis have been savoured by most of us. It's that "no one can eat just one" kind of sweet. I have often wondered how they get those perfectly shaped diamond bits of melt in the mouth wonders. And lo! , I managed to find the fool proof recipe to make them exactly the way we all remember and relish. The procedure is so simple that one would want to make it over and over again just as I do. And more importantly, this recipe does not use a drop of ghee or oil. Now, isn't that lovely ?

So here we go.

Kaju Katli

This recipe yields about 15 - 20 pieces of Kaju Katlis

Ingredients

Whole Cashewnuts - 1 cup
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Water - 1/4 cup

Procedure

1. Break the cashew nuts into small pieces and grind them into a fine powder.

2. In a non stick vessel (if you have one) or a normal vessel, take the sugar and water and make a one string consistency sugar syrup. The procedure to check for one string consistency is pretty simple. Take a drop of the sugar syrup with your forefinger and press your thumb against the forefinger. While separating the fingers you should be able to see a small thread form in between the two fingers. It takes about 4- 5 minutes for a single string syrup to form if done on a high flame or close to 8 minutes if done on a low flame.

3. Once it is done, simmer the flame, pour in the cashew powder and keep stirring the mix. After about 2 minutes, pour in a drop of the mix in a small bowl of water, you should be able to make a ball out of this drop of mix.

4. On reaching this stage, turn off your stove and grab a book or just relax. Leave the mixture to cool for about 20 minutes to half an hour.

5. Now for the last part. Bring this cooled down mixture together and form into a soft dough. Take a butter paper / parchment paper / a greased plate. Roll the dough on the sheet / plate into the desired thickness. At this stage you could add the silver warq on the rolled out dough.

6. Finally cut it into diamond shaped katlis. A pizza cutter does an excellent job of this without disturbing the edges.

You mithai shop Kaju katli is ready.

Note: The most important point to be noted here is that the cashew nuts should not be taken out of the fridge. If they are, they tend to leave out oil while they are being made into a powder.