I had learned the recipe of shakkarpara without sugar syrup during a train journey. Yes, you heard me right! Long train journeys enrich us with lots of experiences. Usually shakkarpara is an all time favorite snack for kids, maybe because it is coated with dried sugar syrup on it. But shakkarpara without sugar syrup is a different version. It is less time consuming and hassle free from the preparation of perfect sugar syrup.
During summer vacations I was travelling in the train with my daughter Apoorva from Bangalore to Jaipur. The best part of travelling in train during summer vacation is that we find a lot of families with kids. So the whole atmosphere inside the coach looks like a nice neighborhood. Parents will be gossiping, kids will be playing together and after every short interval they will come and demand something to eat. Chess, Ludo, Snake and Ladder, Cards, drawing and painting pouch – parents carry everything over such long journeys to keep their kids busy.
And above all, the most important thing mothers do is, prepare snacks for these long distance journeys. Yes, mothers still bring homemade snacks for train travel, though you get a lot of stuff in the train itself, but you can’t beat the taste of homemade stuff, and it is safe for your kid’s health also.
So, in this train I met a couple with their three year old son. They were very nice people and I had a lovely time with them till I reached Jaipur. In the whole journey their son would come (except sleeping time) after every half an hour demanding something to munch. So naturally she offered me too when she opened her shakkarpara pack. (she had 4-5 different varieties of snacks). I liked her version of shakkarpara without using sugar syrup. So asked her complete recipe and after reaching back to Bangalore I tried and liked it a lot.
If you also find it interesting, do give it a try …….
Ingredients :
Maida (white flour) 1 cup
Powdered Sugar 8 tbsp
Oil 1+1/2 tbsp
Water 1/8 cup
oil for frying
Procedure :
In a broad vessel take maida and powdered sugar.
Mix maida and powdered sugar nicely, add oil and mix the whole mixture with the tip of your fingers (oil is used to make shakkarpara crisp).
To figure out how much oil is enough, after adding oil and mixing it with maida, take the mixture in your palm and fold your palm tightly. If the mix binds and doesn’t crumble, the quantity of oil is perfect.
Now slowly add water by sprinkling it with your hand.
Because of powdered sugar in the mix, if we will add more water than needed, mixture will become very wet. So, sprinkle water carefully and prepare a tight dough. Apply some oil on the dough to make it smooth. Don’t give much resting time to the dough otherwise because of sugar it will become loose.
Roll out the dough on your clean kitchen top in rectangular, round or square shape. Cut out the rough edges. Later roll out these left out cut edges dough and follow the same procedure.
Now cut long stripes.
Once again cut these stripes into small pieces and fry them in hot oil.
Keep the heat on sim to medium. Because there is sugar mixed with maida, these shakkarpara might burn fast. So carefully fry them shifting the heat from sim to medium. Once they are fried, gently shift them into a large sized strainer (so that excess oil is strained) or on a butter paper.
Remember, this variety of shakkarpara would be very soft after frying. Let them cool down completely, and they will turn perfect crisp. I am sure you are going to love them and they wouldn’t last more than two days, because you will always find an excuse to go into the kitchen and munch them the whole day..!!
