Khaja

Fried, sweet, deliciousness in a handheld treat. Khaja is amazing and exactly what you need.

Khaja is absolutely delicious. It’s like a significantly more delicate alternative to shakarpare, if you ask me. It’s light, flaky, crisp, and so delightfully sweet. Perfect for nearly any occasion and stores easily in an airtight container for about 2 weeks. So the way I see it, it’s worth making a triple batch and eating the sinful delight over the next two weeks of your life.

Being Indian means several cups of tea a day, and each cup of tea is accompanied by a nibble, sweet or savory, that’s up to the drinker. Personally, I prefer a sweet treat to go with tea, which means my house is never short of a bikkie or 10. That said, sadly, the last time I made khaja it barely made it a week before we were out and sad to be without khaja.

Khaja isn’t terribly difficult to make but it does take a little practice, so take your time and don’t worry, it’ll be delicious no matter what. The one thing to keep in mind is that you want to work out all of the air bubbles, otherwise it will fall apart during rolling. The only other note is to simply put the sugar syrup back on the stove on low heat if it starts to harden. Also, as always, use fresh cardamom instead of prepackaged powdered cardamom. The difference between fresh ground spices and pre-ground spices is HUGE!

Love desserts as much as we do? Try these:

Khaja

Course: DessertCuisine: IndianDifficulty: Medium

Pieces

20

pieces

Prep time

20

minutes

Cooking time

30

minutes

Resting Time

30

minutes

Total time

1

hour 

20

minutes

Cook Mode

Keep the screen of your device on

Ingredients

• For Khaja:

• 1 cup all purpose flour

• 1 tsp cardamom, powdered

• 1/8 tsp salt

• 2 tbsp ghee

• 1/4 cup water

• oil for deep frying

• For Chashni:

• 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar

• 1/2 cup water

• 1/4 tsp cardamom, powdered

• 1 tsp lemon juice

Equipment/Specialty Items

• Green CardamomGreen Cardamom

Directions

• For Khaja:
•  In a large bowl, mix flour, cardamom, salt, and ghee.
• Add water and knead into a smooth and soft dough.
• Lightly grease dough with ghee, cover, and set aside for 30 minutes.
• Lightly dust the dough with flour and roll out to approximately 1/8-1/4 inch thick.
• Trim dough into a rectangle.
• Carefully roll the dough into a tight cylinder. Make sure to remove all air pockets as you roll. The more layers the better.
• Cut it into 1 inch pieces and flatten into an oval shape.
• In large pot, heat oil over medium-low heat.
• Fry khaja in batches till crispy and golden brown.
• Immediately place the fried khaja into the sugar syrup and soak for 5 minutes.
• Serve or place in an airtight container.
• For Chashni (sugar syrup):
• In a second pot (while the oil is heating up), mix sugar and water, over medium-low heat. Stir consistently to avoid burning.
• Boil syrup till it achieves a “1 string” consistency. That means you take a small teaspoon full, once cool enough to handle dip your forefinger into the syrup. Then touch your forefinger and thumb together. In between them the syrup should form a string that doesn’t easily separate.
• Stir in cardamom and lemon juice.
• Cover and set sugar syrup aside until the khaja is fried.

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