Sukhdi, the three-ingredient Gujarati gol papdi
સુખડી
Atta roasted in ghee, jaggery stirred in off the heat, pressed into a plate and cut. Three ingredients, one pan, and a lesson in how gur behaves.
Any day of the year · Prep 5 min · Cook 12 min · Total 42 min · Makes About 16 pieces · Gujarati dessert
Gol is the Gujarati word for jaggery, and sukhdi, also called gol papdi, is the first sweet most Gujarati children learn to make: atta, ghee and gol, in that order, in one pan. It travels well, keeps for a fortnight and takes about a quarter of an hour at the stove.
It is also the clearest lesson there is in how jaggery behaves.
The jaggery is never cooked
The gur only melts, in the heat the roasted atta is holding. If it goes in while the pan is still on the flame, it cooks, and the sukhdi sets as hard as a brick. Switch off the heat, wait half a minute, and then add it.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (about 130 g) Whole wheat flour (atta)
- ½ cup (about 100 g) Ghee
- ½ cup (about 100 g) ShuddhGaon jaggery powder
- 1 tsp Sesame or poppy seeds
Method
- Grease a plate Rub a little ghee over a steel thali or a small tray and keep it beside the stove.
- Roast the atta in the ghee Melt the ghee in a heavy pan on a low flame, add the atta and stir constantly for 8 to 10 minutes. It is ready when it has turned golden, smells like biscuits and looks a little looser and frothy.
- Take it off the heat Switch off the flame and move the pan off the burner. Count to thirty.
- Stir in the jaggery Add the jaggery powder and stir quickly until it has melted into the mixture and no specks are left.
- Press it into the plate Pour it into the greased plate at once and flatten it with the back of a bowl to about a centimetre thick. Sprinkle the seeds over the top and press them in.
- Cut it warm Mark squares or diamonds with a knife while it is still warm. Leave it for 20 to 25 minutes, then lift the pieces out.
With our jaggery
Powder is ideal here: it melts in seconds, before the mixture has time to cool and stiffen. A block must be grated very fine, or the pieces stay as lumps in the finished sukhdi. Our gur is unbleached, so expect a deep golden brown. If your sukhdi sets too hard, the fault is the heat, not the gur.
Tips from our kitchen
- Softer or crisper For a softer sukhdi, press it thicker and add the gur the moment the count is done. For a crisper one, roast the atta a shade darker.
- In winter A pinch of dry ginger powder stirred in with the jaggery is the cold-weather version.
- Keeping it It keeps for two weeks in an airtight box at room temperature, which is why it goes into every travel bag.
Questions people ask
- Why is my sukhdi hard?
- The jaggery cooked. It should only melt in the residual heat of the roasted atta, so switch off the flame and wait half a minute before adding it.
- What is the ratio for sukhdi?
- Two parts atta to one part ghee and one part jaggery, by the cup: 1 cup of atta, ½ cup of ghee and ½ cup of jaggery powder.
- Is sukhdi the same as gol papdi?
- Yes. Sukhdi, gol papdi and gur papdi are names for the same Gujarati sweet of wheat flour, ghee and jaggery.
Worth reading alongside this
- Jaggery in Gujarati
- Powder, block or cubes?
- Why jaggery powder hardens, and how to keep it free-flowing
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