Peanut chikki with jaggery, the gud patti that snaps
मूंगफली गुड़ चिक्की
Roasted peanuts set in jaggery cooked to the hard-crack stage. Two ingredients, fifteen minutes at the stove and one test that tells you when to stop.
Lohri, Makar Sankranti and winter · Prep 15 min · Cook 15 min · Total 50 min · Makes About 20 pieces · Indian snack
Chikki in Maharashtra, gud patti further north: roasted peanuts held in a thin sheet of jaggery that breaks with a clean snap. It is winter food, sold by the roadside from the first cold morning, and it is two ingredients.
It is also the one jaggery sweet where the syrup has to be cooked hard, and where a minute either way is the difference between a chikki that snaps and one that sticks to every tooth.
The cold-water test
Keep a small bowl of cold water by the stove. When the syrup has been bubbling for a few minutes, drop a little in. Soft and stretchy means not yet. A bead that turns brittle and breaks between your fingers with a snap means now.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (about 150 g) Raw peanuts
- ¾ cup (about 150 g) ShuddhGaon jaggery powder
- 1 tbsp Water
- 1 tsp, plus a little for greasing Ghee
- A pinch Baking soda
Method
- Roast the peanuts Dry-roast the peanuts in a heavy pan on a low flame for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring, until the skins blister and the nuts smell roasted. Let them cool.
- Skin and split them Rub the peanuts in a cloth to loosen the skins and blow the skins away. Press a rolling pin over them once so most of them split in half.
- Get everything ready Grease the back of a steel plate or a clean board, a rolling pin and a knife with ghee. Put a bowl of cold water by the stove. Once the syrup is ready there is no time to look for anything.
- Melt the jaggery Put the ghee, the water and the jaggery powder in the heavy pan on a low flame and stir until the gur has dissolved.
- Cook to hard crack Raise the flame to medium-low and cook for 5 to 7 minutes, stirring all the time, as the syrup foams and darkens. Test a drop in the cold water. When it sets brittle and snaps cleanly, take the pan off the heat. If it bends, cook for half a minute more and test again.
- Add the peanuts Stir in the pinch of soda if you are using it, then the peanuts. Mix fast, until every nut is coated.
- Roll it out Tip the mixture onto the greased surface and roll it out at once, about half a centimetre thick. It stiffens in under a minute.
- Cut and cool Score it into squares with the greased knife while it is still warm. Leave it for 15 to 20 minutes, then break it along the lines and store it airtight.
With our jaggery
Equal weights of peanuts and jaggery is the rule, and this is one recipe where a kitchen scale earns its place. Our powder melts evenly in a couple of minutes, with no lumps to chase while the rest begins to burn. Nothing is added to our gur to control how it sets, so test it in cold water every time rather than trusting the minutes. A darker pack makes a darker chikki. It does not change the snap.
Tips from our kitchen
- If it is chewy The syrup stopped short of hard crack. Scrape the chikki back into the pan with a spoon of water, melt it, cook it to the snap and roll it again.
- Other nuts and seeds Sesame, roasted chana dal or cashews: keep the weight equal to the jaggery and the method is the same. Puffed rice is far lighter, so use about 4 cups (60 g) for 150 g of gur, and take the syrup only to hard ball.
- Keep it dry Chikki pulls moisture from the air and turns sticky. Box it as soon as it is cold, with paper between the layers.
Questions people ask
- Which jaggery is best for making chikki?
- Any clean sugarcane jaggery, cooked to the hard-crack stage. In Maharashtra a sticky variety sold as chikki gul is used. The stage of the syrup matters more than the form, and powder is convenient because it melts evenly.
- Why is my chikki chewy and sticky?
- The jaggery did not reach hard crack. A drop in cold water must turn brittle and snap. If it bends or sticks to your teeth, the syrup needs longer.
- What is the ratio of peanuts to jaggery in chikki?
- Equal by weight: 150 g of peanuts to 150 g of jaggery. In cups that is 1 cup of peanuts to ¾ cup of jaggery powder.
Worth reading alongside this
- Gur ki chashni: syrup stages
- The gur festival calendar
- Til and gur at Sankranti, the way our village makes it
The jaggery this recipe is made with
- ShuddhGaon Jaggery Powder Pouch — The same fine gud powder in resealable 500 g and 1 kg zip pouches
- ShuddhGaon Jaggery Powder — Fine gur shakkar that melts into tea, coffee and milk
- ShuddhGaon Jaggery Combo — Cubes for the cup, powder for the kitchen