Khaja

Khaja is a delicious Indian sweet, very popular in Odhisa. It is believed that Khaja is Lord Jagannath’s favourite sweet and is regularly offered as a prasad in Jagannath Temple in Puri, Odhisa. Today, being Ratha Yatra.. thought of making Khaja.

Ratha Yatra takes me back to my childhood days. I fondly remember my Dadu(grandfather)taking me to the “Rath er Mela” and buying me trinkets, terracotta n wooden toys…. on way back home , he would bring two small bamboo baskets, lined with “sal pata”, filled with Khaja n Jelapi… which was sought after by everyone at home.

Khaja, is a flour, sugar and ghee based wafery textured, melt in the mouth sweet. The beauty of Khaja are the crispy, brownish layers; acquired, when fried over medium flame with lot of patience. After which it is lightly and gently rolled and dunked in sugar syrup, so as to coat it well.. What you get is a rich, flaky, crispy, comforting, sweet mouthfeel….No wonder why Lord Jagannath loves it… it’s simply Divine.

Here’s how I made… it is basically made with all purpose flour(maida), but I used Whole wheat Flour(Atta)

Things needed….

For Khaja

2 cups …. Wholewheat Flour (Atta)

4tbsp ….. Ghee ( Clarified Butter)

1 big pinch… Salt

1/4 cup.. water ( to make a soft dough)

Oil/ Ghee for frying

For Sugar Syrup

2 cups… Sugar

1/2 cup… water

3-4 pods of cardamom (crushed)

Method…

In a bowl, added the flour, salt ,ghee and mixed well until it was crumbly in texture.

Next, added water, little at a time and made a soft pliable dough.

Covered it with a damp cloth and let it rest for some time.

In the mean time, prepared the sugar syrup by mixing all the ingredients mentioned for sugar syrup and letting it boil, till it reached one- string consistency. Removed and kept aside.

Now, divided the dough into 4-5 small balls and with the help of a rolling pin, rolled out thin sheets.( as thin as you can).

Placed one sheet on the working surface and brushed it with ghee and sprinkled little flour.

Next, placed another sheet on top and brushed with ghee n sprinkled flour.

Continued doing this till all the sheets were used.

Finally, rolled it up gently into a tight log, and cut it into 1 inch thick pieces.

Now, using a light hand,rolled them with a rolling pin into rectangles .. Kept aside for frying.

Heated , enough oil/ ghee for deep frying on medium heat.

Fried them till golden brown, taking care not to break them as they turn light n fluffy.

Removed and placed them on kitchen paper gently.

Next, dunked in the warm sugar syrup. Turning lightly so as to make sure it’s coated well .

Removed and kept it for sometime until the sugar syrup dried a bit.

The crispy,flaky, melt in the mouth Khajas are ready..