Makar Sankranti Special Chikki
Wish you all Happy Makar Sankranti and Pongal.
Makar sankranti is also known as Uttarayan in Gujarat from where I belong. Today, we celebrate this festival by flying kites and having these sweet delicacies made from jaggery along with sesame seeds and peanuts.
For making sesame(til) chikki
Ingredients:
1& 3/4 cup roasted sesame seeds
1 cup jaggery
1 teaspoon ghee(clarified butter)
Preparation method:
Roast required sesame seeds in a pan till it is uniformly heated. Make sure to stir it continuously to avoid burning smell from seeds.
Transfer it in to another vessel and let it cool down.
Then add ghee in a pan and let it get melt at low flame. ( Entire process should be done at low flame only).
Add jaggery to it and stir continuously. Once jaggery gets melted, bring it to boiling.
Once you see the mixture bubbling, let it cook for more 2 mins and turn off the flame.
Immediately add sesame seeds and mix together until everything comes together.
Grease the floor or plate with ghee and pour the above mixture on to it.
Flatten the mixture with greased rolling pin or some flat surface to make it equal in thickness.
Let it cool down for few min and cut it into equal pieces
For making peanut(groundnut) chikki
Ingredients:
1 & 1/4 cup roasted peanut
1 cup jaggery
1 & 1/2 teaspoon ghee(clarified butter)
Preparation method:
Roast peanuts at low flame and let it cook till it gets crunchy or till it’s skin starts coming out.
Let it cool down totally and remove its peel.
After peeling, crush them roughly so that peanuts breaks down into half.
Place ghee in a pan and add jaggery to it.
Let it cook at room temperature with continuous stirring. After it starts bubbling, you have to cook till you get crunchy consistency.
To check that, pour a drop of jaggery on the kitchen top, let it cool down for 30 sec and eat it. If you feel crunch on a bite, then it is ready, otherwise, you have to continue cooking for more few mins
Once it is done, pour peanuts into it and mix properly till everything comes together.
Grease the kitchen top with ghee and pour the mixture onto it. Then using wet hand, try to bring it together and then flatten it with greased rolling pin to get uniform width from all sides.
Let it cool down for few mins and make cut lines with a knife.
