Kaju Katli

A few years ago, I was obsessed with perfecting the Kaju Katli recipe. Trust me I have tried it all courses, talking to friends in the industry, family recipes, youtube – using sun dried cashewnuts, soaked cashew nuts, powders, pounded, pulse-ground, cashew paste, heat with sugar, mix with syrup, cardamom only, no cardamom, with and without vanilla, rose… the list goes on! My benchmark was always Chitale bandhu and kaka halwai sweets Kaju Katli from pune – simple, no nonsense, indulgent!

The most successful one was the one that was the simplest, used the least amount of ingredients and in a blind test conducted at home, my katli won over both Chitale and kaka Halwais! So I am quite proud of this recipe 🙂 I hope you enjoy making and treating yourself and your loved ones to this vegan and gluten-free sweet!

It’s important to follow this recipe to the T, to avoid any mistakes. I will not be able to quantify the ingredients in volume as the cashew powder and different kinds of sugar will vary in weight a lot with different varieties and measuring styles. So, you will have to have a weighing scale for this one 🙂 You will end up wasting some when powdering sifting, etc. Make sure you measure the powder and not the nuts.

You will need:

200 g cashewnut powder – Detailed process outlined in the instructions below

160g sugar (granulated)

80g water

edible silver leaf

THAT’S it! In my experience thats all you need in a delicious kaju katli clean, simple, quality ingredients, emphasis on color and texture and you don’t really need any flavoring agents in my opinion. But if you must, you can add just a hint of cardamom powder or rose extract, but trust me first ake it woithout and then decide if you really want to!

Procedure:

Making the cashew powder:

• This is the most important step in the process. Select whole clean cashews – its tempting to use broken pieces for this as its all going to be powdered anyway! However, whole cashewnuts are ususally superior quality, cleaner, lighter in color and have a better body and flavor – so use whole or halved cashewnuts as much as possible
• Sun dry the nuts for a few hours in hot direct sun to get them to be crunchy. I am not against using other drying methods such as low temperature toaster or microwaving for a few seconds, but sun-drying (if/when available) is the best way to do this without having any impact on flavor
• once the cashew nuts are dried break them in smaller pieces either by hands or chop them with a knife – you will know depending on how easily they break with your hands, that they have dried enough.
• Grind the broken cashewnuts in a grinder ON PULSE MODE – do not grind on continuous mode as this will result in a buttery paste instead of a powder and will not work for this recipe
• Make sure to patiently grind pulsing in quick bursts to make as fine of a powder as you can
• Sieve this ground mixture and reprocess the larger pieces left after sieving one more time – sieve again. Only do this step twice as with repetitive grinding, they start getting oily. Save the pieces that you couldn’t grind to a fine powder (that remain on top of the sieve) – these can be used in the filling for Kesar pista roll or in other muthais such as Anjeer barfi and Rose bahar

Making the sugar syrup

• Once you have the cashew powder ready, you can start the next step – which is making the sugar syrup
• in a heavy bottom pan, preferably non-stick, mix together the sugar and water and start heating on low-medium flame
• Continue heating and stirring gently until sugar dissolves and mixture starts to boil and starts to thicken
• take a drop on your finger and check consistency by tapping it between your thumb and index finger – we need to continue cooking until you get a thick, stubby, single string that’s waxy (not clear, transparent and long)
• At this stage, dump the cashew powder to the pan and turn off the flame
• continue stirring the mixture in the hot pan, until well combined and it forms a ball that does not stick to the pan
• At this point, transfer this ball of mixture on a silicone mat or any other heat-proof working surface
• Once, it cools down slightly and you are able to touch it, knead it with greased hands (with ghee). It is very convenient to knead it with minimal touching between the silicone sheet
• Be careful not to over-knead – only knead until it looks smooth and homogenous
• Once you have achieved this, roll out the mixture on the silicone sheet to about 1/2 cm thickness
• Lay down sheets of edible silver leaf on the surafce and cut diamond shaped pieces
• Let it set at room temperature for a few hours, until completely cooled and fully dry, Ideally 4-5 hours or overnight. Keep lightly covered
• Remove separate pieces and enjoy! For the first week or so, you do not need to refrigerate this if it was made using proper precautions in a clean and dry environment.
• Can be refrigerated for up to one month