Burst surprises this Diwali as you serve healthy delicacies to your family and friends! Thanks to SHARAN, your sweets can now be 100% healthy by making them with oil-free, dairy-free, preservative-free and made sweet with natural sugars and love. And you know what’s the best part….they are so easy to prepare! Try the below Recipes.
Coconut Barfi
Ingredients
- 2 cups desiccated coconut/fresh coconut
- ½ cup coarsely powdered cashews
- ¼ cup dry dates powder
- ½ tsp cardamom powder
- 1 cup raisins or as required to bind the barfi
- a pinch of salt.
Method:
Mix all the ingredients except the raisins very well. Mash the raisins and knead them in the coconut mixture. Press this mixture in the steel plate and cut into the desired shapes. Garnish with desiccated coconut. Refrigerate the barfi for 6-8 hours before de-plating. Store in the refrigerator.
Makes about 25 squares.
Chocolate Kaju Katli
This recipe was contributed by Mr P.V Narayanamoorthy
Ingredients
2 cups cashews
1 cup date paste
80 ml water
1 tbsp unsweetened cacao powder (a little more if you so desire)
1/4 tsp cardamom powder
Method
Clean the cashew nuts and roast till crunchy (don’t discolor). Once cool, add to the blender and make a fine powder. Add date paste, cardamom and water in a heavy bottomed vessel. Melt on a low flame. Bring it to boil and boil for a minute. Add powdered cashew nuts and remove from the flame immediately. Mix well, ensuring there are no lumps.
Sieve cacao powder to this mixture and mix well. Put it back on the stove and cook till you are able to make a non-sticky, soft ball with the dough. Transfer the mixture to a butter paper and leave aside till warm. When warm, cover with another butter paper. Use a rolling pin to flatten the dough. Cut into desired shapes. Allow to cool and transfer to an airtight container.
Serve for Diwali and enjoy!
Karanji/ Ghughra/ Gujia
The most favourite Diwali sweet made with whole foods, oil free, dairy free and processed sugar free.
Ingredients
For the filling
- ½ cup desiccated coconut/ dried coconut
- ¼ cup cashews
- ¼ cup almonds
- ¼ cup pistachios
- ½ cup kharek powder
- 1 tsp cardamom powder
- ½ tsp nutmeg (jaiphal) powder
Method:
Roast the cashews, almonds and pistachios till light golden. You will know its done when fragrant. Cool down and coarsely powder them. Add the desiccated coconut, raisins, kharek, cardamom powder, nutmeg powder. Set aside in an airtight container.
For the dough
Ingredients
- 2 cups wheat flour
- ½ cup cashew butter
- ½ tsp cardamom powder
- ½ tsp nutmeg powder
- 2 tbsp coconut butter
- 2 tbsp date paste
- water to knead the dough
Method:
Mix all the ingredients well. Knead soft dough with hot water and let it for 30 minutes, covered. Take a small golf size ball of the dough and roll it in thin circles. Fill with the prepared filling and fold the karenji into half. Apply water along the edges and seal it tight. Using a fork, secure the edges by making imprints of the fork. Bake in an oven at 180˚- 200˚C. Bake till golden on both the sides. Store in an airtight container.
Date Squares (raw)
Ingredients for crust
- 2 cups cashews
- 1 cup raw oats
- 1 tsp of cinnamon
- 20 large dates, pitted
Ingredients for filling
- 1½ cup dates, pitted
- juice of 1 large orange (½ cup)
- zest of 1 large orange
Method
For crust
In a food processor, pulse the nuts and oats into a fine meal. Add the cinnamon and pulse to combine. Add the dates and pulse until well distributed and mixture begins to clump together.
For filling
In a food processor, blend the filling ingredients until smooth. Press 2-3rds of the crust mixture into a 9-inch square pan lined with parchment paper. Spread the filling mixture evenly on top of the crust. Sprinkle the remaining crust mixture on top of the filling.
Tahini Bliss Balls
Ingredients
- 3 cups of amaranth puffs
- 200 gm of dates, chopped and pitted
- 2 Tbsp cocoa
- ½ cup of tahini (sesame butter)
- 50 gm sunflower seeds
- 100 gm dried apricots or figs chopped
- 100 gm sultanas
- 100 gm walnuts chopped
- 1 cup of dried coconut flakes
Method
In a large bowl, add the dates and cover with boiling water. Leave this to soak for half an hour. Strain the water from the dates into a separate bowl and mash them slightly. Don’t throw the water away because you may need to add this to the mix if it becomes too dry to work with. Although the mix should remain firm. Mix the dates with tahini, cocoa, dry fruit, nuts and seeds.
Pour this over the amaranth puffs. Mix well and then roll handfuls of the mixture into balls, compacting them together by squeezing a little. This is done easier with wet hands. Then roll each ball in the coconut flakes and refrigerate.
Recipes & Image Courtesy: Sharan India