Sesame brittle / til chikki/ til gajak
How many times we crave something sweet and give up to those sweet tooth?Many times..
What if we have something handy which is sweet yet healthy, easy to store, lasts long, doesn’t leave the guilt behind, easy to carry anywhere ? This is one such quick sweet snack..sesame brittle, til chikki or til gajak.
The names vary from region to region but the taste is almost same.
In India we usually make it in winters and specially on occasion of Makarsankranti.
Why homemade?
Yes, I know you would say, there are hundreds of varieties of brittles on the supermarket shelf available at pennies. But have you read the labels? If not, please go through next time.They probably have corn syrup or glucose syrup and sugar & some preservatives if any. If i’ve to describe glucose syrup, its a compressed form of big amount of sugar in little packet.As such sugar is not so good as its has glucose , fructose (monosaccharide –means– single chain carbohydrate–easily becomes available to body –leads to plenty sugar/energy available to body in least efforts.
To top there is glucose syrup..do I need to tell how unhealthy it is to our health?
This is why homemade!!
In homemade version we are adding jaggery which is unrefined form of sugar and is less processed ..its has 70 % of sucrose (which is disaccharide –double chain carbohydrate..body need break it down before using–needs some efforts from body before use.—simply we can say its better form of sugar than the single chain carbs.) and traces pf Vitamin B , minerals, calcium, zinc, phosphorus , copper and iron .
This is why as a child we have been given peanut and jaggery ladoos…peanut is protein and jaggery the iron…a perfect form of energy and nutrition.
Let’s head to making these perfect snaps!!
Only few ingredient and few minutes is all what you would need.
Trick of perfect snap being ‘the making of jaggery syrup’…
- Dont add any water to syrup
- Check syrup doneness …by adding drop of syrup in cold water.. if the drop breaks with a snap sound the your brittle will be brittle and snap!
- equal proportion of jaggery and sesame is key.
Roast sesame seeds without any oil till they are plump ,aromatic, change colour to pink.
Steps to make:
Melt jaggery with ghee on low flame. No water
Dry roast almonds, sunflower seeds ,linseed and pumpkin seeds. Add in Gojji berries and cranberries.
Pop amaranth little by little to get small amaranth pops.
Mix in almond butter and dates puree in a wok. Heat the mixture on low flame till mixed well.
: Recipe Card :
| Prep Time | 2 minutes |
| Cook Time | 10 minutes |
| Servings |
pieces
|
- 1 cup sesame seeds (til)
- 1 cup Jaggery (gudh)
- 1 Tbsp ghee (clarified butter)
- 1 tsp cardamom powder
- 1 tbsp chopped pistachios and almonds to garnish (optional)
Ingredients
|
|
- Start with dry roasting sesame (til) in a thick bottomed wok or pan. Stir continuously as they might burn on one side. Roast till they plump up and start changing colour to pinkish. Transfer to a plate.
- In the same wok, on low heat, add in jaggery and ghee. There is no need to add water. Quickly start stirring as jaggery sticks to pan and burns. Continuously stir the jaggery. Initially jaggery melts, later it starts bubbling.After 5-6 minutes it starts changing colour to darker shade.
- At this stage, do the syrup test. Take little cold water in a bowl and add drop of jaggery mixture into water. Let the drop cool off. Try to break the drop with fingers; if it breaks with a snap like a crunchy brittle (chikki) would do then the syrup is ready. If the syrup isn't ready then the drop is stretchy, its stretches to a string , doesn't break with a snap.
- While doing the syrup test, remember to stir the jaggery mixture.
- When syrup is ready, quickly add roasted til and cardamom powder. Mix till well combined.
- Transfer mixture to butter paper or any greased platform. Lay another butter paper on top and with help of rolling pi, roll the mixture as thin as you would like. Rolling must be done when the mixture is still warm.
- After 2 minutes, when it's still warm, cut into desired shaped pieces.Run knife again after 5 minutes and the brittle (chikki) is ready.It breaks with a snap. Garnish with chopped nuts .
- Store in air tight container. Stays fresh up to 1 month.
- The jaggery measure is taken by lightly packing jaggery in measuring cup. You can add more or less jaggery to your taste.
- Sesame seeds can be replaced by any other seeds/ nuts . e.g. peanuts, almonds, pistachios , hazel nut, cashew, roasted gram, coconut, linseed , pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, goji berries, cranberries etc.
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