Ilaichi aur kesar roll (cardamom and saffron roll) is prepared with khoya/mawa. If you remember, I had recently posted the process of preparing instant khoya (Milk powder-based Mawa (Khoya)). I used the same mawa to prepare these irresistible, pretty ilaichi aur kesar roll.
The best part about this sweet dish is that it is a no-cook sweet dish. Isn’t that wonderful!!
The other good part about this recipe is that you can change the flavours according to your own choice. If you like pista more than kesar (saffron) or your preference is rose flavour instead of cardamom, then go for it! This recipe is very flexible – go according to your taste buds.
One more reason to like this recipe is that if you are more of a burfi loving person instead of rolls, then just cut khoya in square shapes instead of rolling it. Double flavoured burfi is ready. Anything for you!!
And the last reason for loving this recipe is very simple – the end result is so beautiful and tastes extremely delicious!! Am I exaggerating a lot? Probably, but all of my family and friends loved these Ilaichi and kesar rolls. So, I insist you try this sweet dish at home as khoya preparation is also very easy and you can prepare mawa one or two days in advance ( Milk powder based Mawa (Khoya))
There are a few more posts in the blog related to Indian sweets, you can take a look at them also: Indian Traditional Sweets
Ingredients:
400 gm khoya
80 gms powder sugar (divide it equally in two parts)
Saffron, a few strands
Milk 1 tsp
Saffron food colour
Cardamom powder 1 tsp
A few points to remember :
- Khoya should be really stiff. The rolls will not set properly if they have moisture.
- Mash khoya nicely till it is smooth before adding powdered sugar. After adding sugar, khoya will be slightly sticky and it will be difficult to mash khoya to smoothen it out.
- When we add powdered sugar in khoya, it becomes slightly soft. Then, when we add saffron milk on top of it, it turns even softer. So, reduce a little bit of sugar quantity in kesar khoya part. Don’t worry, it will not affect the final taste.
- It doesn’t matter if you don’t have food colour, as it doesn’t affect the taste. Saffron is enough to give a wonderful flavor.
- You have to keep the roll in the fridge to make it firm. If we will be heating khoya and sugar to make it firm, then keeping it in the fridge will not be necessary. But as this is a no-cook recipe, keeping the rolls in the fridge itself will do the job. Firm khoya will be easy to roll initially and later on to get neatly sliced ilaichi aur kesar rolls.
Process:
Soak kesar in hot milk and keep it aside.
Crumble khoya on the clean kitchen counter or in a broad vessel. Rub khoya nicely with your palms till it is smooth and divide it into two equal parts.
Take one part of khoya and again crumble it and add 40 gms sieved powdered sugar(can reduce sugar quantity a little) . By now, kesar milk would be ready and cooled down. Sieve milk also and add in khoya. Don’t throw away kesar strands – keep them in the fridge. We will use them later to garnish rolls.
If you want more saffron colour, add a pinch of kesar food colour. Mix everything nicely and keep this kesar khoya portion separate.
In the same way, prepare another portion of khoya by adding ilaichi powder (cardamom powder) and sieved powdered sugar.
Take butter paper or parchment paper and prepare two separate rolls of khoya. It will be easy to shape khoya in rolls with butter paper/parchment paper . Wrap up both the rolls separately in parchment paper and keep them in the fridge for two hours.
After two hours take out both the rolls from the fridge and spread these rolls on butter paper/parchment paper in a rectangle shape with the help of a rolling pin. If you will fold the parchment paper in a rectangular shape (like a book fold) and then spread khoya with a rolling pin, it will be very easy to get the same sized rectangle shape for both the rolls.
Now open the top portion of parchment paper of both ilaichi and kesar khoya and very carefully flip kesar khoya portion over the ilaichi portion.
Roll it with a rolling pin so that both stick well together.
Remove the parchment paper from the top and with the help of the bottom parchment paper, start rolling it in the shape of a log/roll.
Make a tight log/roll, wrap it in parchment paper/butter paper, and keep it in the fridge for 2-3 hours so that it becomes firm.
When the roll/log is firm, take it out from the fridge, unwrap it, and with a sharp knife slice it into small rolls.
Aren’t they beautiful!! While slicing them, the wonderful flavor of kesar and ilaichi will make you gulp one immediately. No one is looking 😉, and don’t worry if you find your family standing right behind you. You deserve that first roll after all the preparation process you did all by yourself!!!
If you can save some pieces, garnish ilaichi aur kesar roll with kesar strands.
Seven cups burfi, this name sounds very different for a mithai. Even I thought the same when first time I read Seven cups burfi post at my favourite blogger Gayathri Kumar’s blog Cookspot. After reading the whole recipe also, I was hesitant to try because didn’t know how it would taste. Though Gayathri’s recipes are no fail and I have tried a lot of them. Maybe I was hesitant because to prepare this sweet raw besan (gram flour) was used, and my experience till now was that if besan is raw, it wouldn’t taste nice and it will stick in the mouth while eating.
