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Wednesday, October 7, 2009

"Sweet Treats"-Kaju Katli and Kaju Flowers

Kaju Katli: A Cooking lesson
So today was the big day,when my friend 'V' (who still is modest and does not want to me to reveal her actual name to give her credit!) was going to teach me and my other friend 'P' ...how to make Kaju Katli. 'P ' and I decided to make 2 batches...one 'V' would demo us and other batch 'P' will make simultaneously. It was great to get a 'hands on' demo and the Kaju katlis came out much better than my last weeks experiment. We could cut perfect diamonds and put the silver leaf on to make it look 'authentic'. Thanks to 'V' ...I finally could make real Kaju Katlis! And Thanks to 'P' for lending me the 'Silver leaf' and making my katlis prettier!
Here is V's recipe
Ingredients:
1 cup Cashews
1tbsp Milk powder
~1 cup Sugar
1/4tsp Cardamom powder
1 pinch Saffron
1/4 cup water
1 pinch salt
1tsp ghee
Method:
1) Soak cashews in water for 1 hr.Coarse grind the cashews with about 1/4 cup (or as less as possible) amount of water. Measure the amount of paste.
2) Remove the paste in a nonstick pan.On medium heat,stir the paste.Add as much sugar as the quantity of the paste.(i.e.for 1 cup paste add 1 cup sugar)
3) Keep stirring the paste till it looks 'dough' like and starts to leave the edges of the pan.Add salt and 1tbsp milk powder and mix.
4) Add saffron and cardamom,mix well.
5) Apply ghee to the counter top/non stick foiled surface.
6) Roll out the Kaju katli dough with rolling pin on the flat surface
7) Stick the silver leaf on top
8) Cut into diamonds
9) Kaju Katli is ready!

Last Evening:
I was very excited last evening for today's cooking class but wasn't quite happy that I did not have the 'Silver leaf/Vark' to put on the Kajukatli to make it look 'authentic'.So,just to check if AC Moore would have it,'M' and I went to the store.But ..No..they did not have any:(
But what they had was....'Pearl dust' which is used to color 'fondants' for cake decorations.This dust is edible and comes in various colors.'M' encouraged me to be innovative..and said that I could make some other designs with the Kaju katli and decorate as I wish.I really liked the idea,and thought about making 'Kaju flowers'.I bought the 'flower' shaped fondant cutter and some pink pearl dust.I already had the 'sprinkles' to make the flower centers.Here are my Kaju Flowers:They look too good to be eaten!



6 comments:

  1. Posted at 1.55 p.m.
    That was quick.
    Oh, please take out lending silver foil.....blah blah stuff. It looks very kiddish.
    I know ur thankful, that is enough.

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  2. It's OK Padama....It's good to be kiddish sometimes!

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  3. Kaju Katli looks awesome. But if this comes under Everyday cooking, then I can't imagine what you will have for special occasions! Now I feel like eating kaju katli....

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  4. Hahah! I know,I should have it under a segment called 'Sweet treats' or something!

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  5. I love this. I remembered my friend gave it to me from her Mumbai trip. Sweet and creamy. Will definitely try this. Thanks for the recipe.

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