Sweet Khaja
Sweet Khaja is a traditional Indian dessert that is deep fried layered pastry soaked in sugar syrup. They are crispy, flaky, juicy and absolutely delicious. This mouthwatering scrumptious Indian sweet is prepared with plain flour, ghee (clarified butter) and cardamom flavored sugar syrup. Khaja makes a perfect sweet for any special occasions or auspicious and religious festivals.
Equipment
- Mixing bowl
- 240 ml measuring cup set
- Frying pan
- Rolling Pin
Ingredients
For Khaja Dough:
- 1½ cup whole wheat flour or all purpose flour
- 2 tablespoon ghee
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup + 2 tablespoon water
- 2 cups oil
For Paste:
- 2 tablespoon flour
- 3 tablespoon ghee
For Sugar Syrup:
- 1 cup water
- 2 cups sugar
- 2-3 cardamom crushed or ¼ teaspoon powder
Instructions
Making The Paste:
- In a small bowl add the flour and ghee. Mix well and make a fine paste. Keep aside.
Making the dough:
- In a mixing bowl, add the flour and ghee. Combine the flour and ghee. Rub them and mix well until you get a crumbled texture.
- Add water little by little at a time and knead it into a fine soft dough.
- Cover the dough and set aside for sometime while you make the sugar syrup.
Making the sugar syrup:
- In a pan add the water, sugar and the crushed cardamon and bring to a boil.
- Boil thr sigar syrup until the syrup thickens and reaches one string consistency. Keep aside warm.
Rolling and shaping the khaja:
- Take the dough and divide it into 6 equal sizes and roll it to balls.
- Take the balls, flatten it and roll them into thin sheets like chapatti with the help of a rolling pin. Roll them as thin as you can. You can shape it in rectangle shape also. Continue the same with the remaining portions of the dough.
- Place one sheet and smear the ghee flour paste evenly. Place another sheet on top of it and smear the ghee-flour paste.
- Repeat the same until all the 6 sheets is layered. Now spread the paste on top of the 6th sheet.
- Roll it from one end as tightly as possible into a log.
- Now cut the roll into about 1 inch pieces. Gently press it and flatten it with a rolling pin.
Frying the khaja:
- Heat oil in a pan. When the oil is heated reduce it to medium heat.
- Fry them in batches till golden brown and crisp in all sides. Please make sure that it is not fried on high heat or else the roll will not be cooked properly from inside.
Soaking the khaja in syrup:
- Once it is fried nicely take out and dunked it in the warm sugar syrup until it is well coat.
- Remove the khajas from the syrup. Your delicious, crispy, flaky sweet Khaja is ready to be savoured.
- Khaja can be served at room temperature or can also be served when still warm.
Video
Notes
- Mix the ghee and flour to crumbly texture before adding water to knead into a dough. This will make the khaja crispy and flaky.
- For frying the khaja any oil can be used.
- Fold the khaja nicely so that their shape remain intact.
- The sugar syrup should be 1 string consistency and should be warm while you soak the fried khaja.
- You can also add saffron to the sugar syrup.
- For making the flour ghee paste you can use cornstarch or rice flour too.
- Flatten the khaja as per your preferred size. The thickness and size of the khaja depends upon how much you rolled.
- Fry khaja on low-medium flame. Please make sure that it is not fried on high heat or else the roll will not be cooked properly from inside.
- Store khaja in air tight container once they cool down completely. These can be stored for atleast 2-3 weeks in room temperature.
- Do not refrigerate the khaja.