A hard, snap-crispy brittle made from peanuts and jaggery — sold wrapped in paper at every railway station and roadside stall across Gujarat. The most portable, affordable and long-lasting sweet of Gujarat.
Ingredients
1.5 cups peanuts — raw with skin
1 cup jaggery — grated
1/4 cup water
1 tsp ghee (for greasing)
Method
Roast the peanuts: Place 1.5 cups raw peanuts in a dry pan on medium heat. Roast stirring continuously for 6 to 7 minutes until the skins begin to blister and separate and the peanuts smell roasted. Remove from heat. Cool for 5 minutes. Rub between your palms to remove most of the papery skins. The skins do not need to be removed completely — some remaining skin is fine. Set the roasted peanuts aside.
Grease a tray immediately: Before starting the jaggery syrup, prepare your work surface. Grease a flat steel tray or a piece of marble or a flat baking sheet generously with ghee. Also grease the back of a flat spoon or spatula with ghee. You must work very fast once the jaggery reaches the right temperature. Having everything ready beforehand is essential.
Make the jaggery syrup: Place 1 cup grated jaggery and 1/4 cup water in a wide heavy-bottomed pan. Heat on medium, stirring, until the jaggery dissolves completely. Once dissolved, increase heat to medium-high. Stop stirring — just swirl the pan gently if needed. Cook the syrup without stirring.
Monitor the syrup temperature carefully: As the syrup boils, it goes through stages. The stage needed for chikki is called hard crack. Test by dropping a small amount of syrup into a glass of cold water — it should immediately harden into a brittle thread that snaps when bent. This takes about 5 to 6 minutes of boiling after the jaggery dissolves.
Test repeatedly: Test every 30 seconds once the syrup has been boiling for 4 minutes. The correct stage is when the syrup forms a hard, brittle thread in cold water that snaps cleanly. Before this stage the syrup will form a soft, pliable thread that bends — keep cooking.
Add the peanuts to the correct-stage syrup: Once the syrup reaches hard crack, remove from heat immediately. Add all the roasted peanuts. Stir quickly and thoroughly for 10 seconds to coat every peanut with the syrup.
Pour onto greased tray immediately: Pour the peanut-syrup mixture onto the greased tray at once. Use the greased spatula to spread it out evenly to about 7 to 8 mm thickness. Work fast — the syrup sets within 1 to 2 minutes.
Score before it fully sets: After 1 minute, while the chikki is still pliable but beginning to firm, use a sharp knife or the edge of your spatula to mark cut lines in a grid pattern. Scoring before it fully hardens makes clean breaking easier.
Let it set completely: Leave undisturbed for 10 minutes until fully hard and set.
Break along the scored lines: Once cold and hard, break the chikki along the scored lines. Each piece should snap cleanly with a sharp sound. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 weeks.
Note: Peanut Chikki is sold at virtually every railway station, bus stand and roadside stall across Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan. The town of Lonavala in Maharashtra is particularly famous for chikki and has been producing it for over 100 years. The hard crack sugar stage is the technical challenge — under-cooked chikki is sticky; over-cooked chikki is bitter. The correct stage makes it glassy, brittle and with a clean snap.