Its been a long while since I wrote on the blog. In fact one could say 2019 has not been a good year for writing as I’ve been silent more than I’d have liked to. However I am glad that you guys haven’t stopped returning and have still been coming to read and enjoy my old recipes.
2019 has been a year of change, of growth, of new decisions that are taking me down unknown paths. Earlier this year I got busy launching India’s first ever Parsi podcast and since June I’ve been busy preparing for and then moving to a new country. But I can’t complain because even though its been a year of not so much writing I’ve taken some big decisions that hopefully I will look back on with joy
Now that I am finally feeling a bit more settled in my new (or old) home in Aotearoa, New Zealand I felt it was finally time to come back home to my blog and share a recipe again. And as I sit here with my laptop on my well, lap while M1 plays on the slides I’m happy I’ve found my writing mojo again.
Today I thought of sharing a recipe I’ve tried a really long time ago (in fact I had to dig way back into my archives to even find the photos) but one that my parents and strangely, even grandma was excited about, Ghee Gor na Lollypops.
Ghee Gor Lollipops
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp high quality cow ghee
- 200 gram dark, unprocessed jaggery
- 50 ml water
- 50 gram crushed nuts of your choice - cashew, almond or pistachio
Instructions
- Take a clean-lipped plate or shallow glass dish and rub the soft ghee over the entire plate. If using silicone moulds, rub some ghee inside instead.
- Chop the jaggery into small pieces
- Heat a small pan and add the jaggery as well as the water.
- Keeping the flame on medium heat let the mixture boil without stirring for about 15-18 minutes. If you have a candy thermometer, you want the mixture to reach about 135 degrees celsius.
- f you don’t have a thermometer, you can test the caramel manually by getting it to one string consistency. A great way to test for one string is to take a clean spoon and drop a spoonful of jaggery back into the pan - it should fall in the consistency of fine hair. Make sure you always use a clean dry spoon and never use the same spoon again as this will have an impact on the consistency of the caramel.
- While the caramel is cooking, crush the nuts in a food processor and set aside.
- Once the caramel is ready, mix in 1 tbsp of ghee.
- If you’re making these as lollypops, pour the caramel into a lipped plate making sure every inch is covered in the same thickness. Allow this to cool at room temperature for about 10 minutes. Once the mixture has cooled, rub a little ghee onto your hands and then break off a tbsp of the caramel. Roll it into a small ball and then roll it in the crushed nuts and then flatten the ball onto your skewer.
- If you’re being lazy and using moulds you can pour the caramel directly into the moulds and top them with the crushed nuts. Allow to set. Once the toffee is hardened pop them out of the moulds.
- Either way, keep them stored in a cool place in a sealed container. Use within a week as the toffee will slowly hydrate and become sticky.