Madatha kaja...a perfect festive sweet. You will love these mini sized ones :)

I made kajas for the first time this diwali. Of course I did not want to try out a very big batch so planned on making some mini kajas and used very little flour (1 cup) to start with. They turned so yum that they were almost gone within a couple of hours. Finally ended up making some more to share with friends. They are very easy to make and are sure to please the crowd. I found the recipe interesting and the look of this festive sweet was interesting too so that was the drive for me to try it out

Simple dough rolled out and shaped, then deep fried till crisp and then finally dipped in sugar syrup makes it an interesting and tasty sweet. The dough is the main part so if you get it right  then you are good to go. I know I am posting the recipe very late but its ok to archive for later use :)

  

Serves... makes a small batch

Serve option... Room Temp

This is what u'll need...

All-purpose Flour / Maida - 1 cup
Ghee - 2 +1  tbspn
Baking soda - a pinch (optional)
Sugar - 1 cup
Rice Flour - 2 tbspn
Lemon juice - few drops
Oil for frying

Here is the stir....

• Measure 1 cup of flour into a wide bowl

• Add 2 tablespoons of ghee to the flour. You can add a pinch of baking soda if you want. I tried it using the kneading and without baking soda. It turned out very good but my friend said she always adds soda and likes that way as it is easier to make the dough. I would be interested in avoiding baking soda wheneverr I can so I havent used any here

• Rub the flour and ghee together with your fingers. Rub it well till it looks like bread crumbs

• To check if the amount of ghee is enough, just hold the flour in your palm and give it a gentle squeeze. If it stays together and takes shape then you can go ahead to the next step. Else add a little more ghee and rub in well into the flour

• Add water little by little and knead it into a soft dough

• Spoon in 2 tablespoons of rice flour into a bowl. Add a tablespoon of ghee to it. Give it a good stir so that it looks likes a thick paste

• Pinch out a small amount of dough and roll it out into a very thin chapathi... try as thin as possible
• Roll out another chapathi of almost same size

• Put some rice flour paste on one chapathi and spread it all over the chapathi as an even layer

• Place another chapathi on top of it. If you are planning to make regular size kajas then layer four chapathis in the similar manner one on top of the other. I wanted to make mini bite-sized ones so layered only 2 chapathis together

• Roll this into a tight log 

• Cut this log into inch size pieces

• Lay each piece on a clean workspace with layer side facing sideways

• Press it down gently with a rolling pin. Roll it very gently just to make it slightly flat and not more than that. If you press too much then the layers might not puff up

• Measure 1 cup of sugar into a saucepan.Add half a cup of water and bring it to a boil. Continue boiling till the syrup becomes a little thick. One stop before it reaches one-string consistency

• Turn off the flame. Add a few drops of lemon juice to the syrup to avoid crystallization

• Heat oil in a kadhai. Let the oil become very hot and then reduce the temperature to low. Slide a few kajas into hot oil and fry them till golden brown

• Drop hot kajas directly into warm sugar syrup and it soak for about 5 minutes

• Remove and syrup and let it cool down. Store it in a container. Stays good for more than a week

• Serve your family with love and enjoy

Note: 

• Using baking soda will make it crisp but you can achieve the same effect by using enough ghee to rub well into the flour
• A few drops of lemon juice will avoid crystallisation of the sugar syrup
• Soak the kajas in warm syrup so that it can soak up a lot of sweetness