This is one of my most favourite desserts of all time. And as good as it tastes it needs an equivalent amount of effort in making it. But it is all worth the effort!

Whenever we visit Puri we always buy and have these khajas and no where in the world you can get such amazing khajas as you get there. These holidays I tried my hand at making them and well they didn’t come out like those at Puri but they came out decent enough to quench my craving.

Ingredients:

For dough

– 1.5 cup or 100 gm all purpose flour or maida

– salt to taste

– 1.5 tbsp ghee or clarified butter

– 3 tbsp oil

– water as needed

For layering

– 4 tbsp rice flour or corn flour

– 4 tbsp ghee or clarified butter

For frying

– 1 cup oil

For sugar syrup

– 1 cup or 75 gm sugar

– 1/2 cup water

– 2tbsp lemon juice

– 2-3 cardamoms with cover

Recipe:

1. In a bowl take the flour add salt. Mix well. Then add the ghee and oil. Mix everything well such that you get a bread crumbs kind of texture and the flour binds together when you take a portion of it in your hand. Add more oil if needed to get the right texture.

Then adding little water at a time knead well to form a semi tight dough. Cover and set aside the dough for 20 minutes.

2. Divide the dough to 5-6 lemon sized balls. Roll them to into thin sheets.

3. Place one sheet on a plate and brush melted ghee over it. Sprinkle rice flour or corn flour over the sheet and dust such that the flour spreads all over the sheet’s surface. Then place another sheet over the top.

Repeat this process for layering till the top most sheet. Also apply the ghee and the flour on the top most sheet’s surface. Do not exceed 5-6 layers as it will become difficult to fry then.

4. Once you are done with the layering. Roll the entire thing longitudinally to form a log. Roll it tight and press to seal the edges. Use little oil to seal the edge if needed.

5. Using a knife cut the log into equal sized pieces. The khajas expand while frying so do not make the pieces very wide. You will be able to see the layers on the sides in the cut pieces.

Now using the rolling pin with very little pressure lightly roll the cut pieces vertically and give them the shape of khajas. Do not roll too much.

6. Take oil in a pan and once the oil is medium hot fry the khajas in batches. Maintain the flame at low-medium all the time. Keep turning the khajas intermittently. They take about 8-10 minutes to turn golden brown. Once they are fried remove them over a tissue paper.

7. In a saucepan add the sugar and water and heat at a high flame till the sugar dissolves.Add the cardamoms. Then lower the flame and let the water simmer for sometime. After five minutes check for the consistency of the sugar syrup. The sugar syrup should reach a single thread like consistency when stretched.

Once the desired consistency is reached add the lemon juice. Mix well and switch off the stove.

8. When the sugar syrup is warm drop the fried khajas in them few at a time. Leave them for about 30 seconds or so and remove. Store them in an airtight container after they dry up.

Enjoy your homemade Puri khajas.

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