Karanji as known in Marathi is a popular Diwali snack among Maharashtrians. It is a deep fried sweet snack made from all-purpose flour and is stuffed with coconut, nuts and sugar mixture.

On the occasion of Diwali people all over the country prepare best dishes at their home. There are so many varieties of Diwali dishes . However, sweet and scrumptious Karanji is the special dish that does not have a substitute on Diwali. Karanji, also known as Gujiya and Kajjikayalu is a dish that is famous all over the India.

Though preparation of Karanji requires little time and effort, the taste is worth all the patience. One major advantage of Karanji is that it can be stored for weeks and used as dessert as well as snacks. It can be eaten anytime of the day and makes a great tea time snack .The sweetness of the karanji is subtle that you can easily have 2 to 3 karanjis without feeling heavy.

Ingredients

For Dough 

1 cup All Purpose Flour / Maida

1/4 cup Sooji / Rawa

2 tsp Oil

1/2 cup warm Milk

pinch of Salt

For Filling

1 tsp Poppy Seeds / KhasKhas

1 tsp Sooji / Rawa

1 cup Dry Grated Coconut

1 cup Powdered Sugar

1/4 tsp Cardamom powder

Assorted Nuts

Extra 

2 tsp Rice Flour

2 tsp Ghee

Oil for frying

food color

Method

For Cover / Coating

Heat up 2 tsp oil. Mix all purpose flour, sooji, salt in to a bowl and pur hot oil over it. Mix well till the time mixture becomes crumbly.
Pour warm milk slowly to make medium consistency dough, not too hard and too soft.
Cover and keep the dough for 30 mts.

For Filling / Stuffing

Dry roast sooji and poppy seeds separately till the time they get light brown color.

Add coconut to dry roasted sooji and poppy seeds, add sugar, cardamom powder, dry fruits and mix well.

To make Karanji

Take the dough and again knead to make it smooth. Divide dough in to 3 equal parts. Add 3 different food color to 3 different parts of dough.

Roll them in to three thin roti.

Mix rice flour and ghee to make it smooth and creamy.

Now take one thin roti, spread rice flour mixture evenly on it, place another roti on the top of it, again spread rice flour mixture.
Now place third roti, roll it evenly from all the sides to make it little thin. Again spread some rice flour mixture.

Now start to roll these three rotis together like Swiss Roll.

Stretch it out little bit, now divide it in to equal parts.

Take ball and roll like poori, add stuffing, apply milk around its edges and seal the karanji well.
Use fork and make some design around karanji.

Now deep fry till the time it gets nice golden color.

Tips:
Making of layered Karanji is optional. You can make simple plane karanji using same dough.

Adapted from Madhuras Recipe

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