Shakkarpara with sugar syrup is a very popular and common sweet snack during Holi and Deepawali festivals in India. One just needs to master the cooking of perfect consistency of sugar syrup for shakkarpara, and the rest of the work will be done in no time!
At my parent’s house my mother used to prepare the dough for Shakkarpara and Namakpara /Nimki and my job was to roll and cut them. After dinner, mom used to fry them. Though I have a sweet tooth, but was never too fond of these sugar syrup coated Shakkarpara.
But Manish and Apoorva both are fond of this sugar syrup coated Shakkarpara, so I am bound to prepare them, but I make them only two times a year, during Holi and Deepawali….
Ingredients :
Maida 2 cups
Chiroti rawa (normal rawa is also fine) 2 tbsp
Oil 4 tbsp
Water 1/2 cup (minus 1 tbsp)
Oil for frying
Sugar syrup :
Sugar 1+1/2 cup sugar
Water 1/3 cup water
Milk 1 tbsp
Cardamom seeds or powder
Procedure :
Take a broad vessel and put maida, chiroti rawa and oil in it. Mix everything together and take some mixture in your palm and bind it. If the mix binds well and doesn’t crumble, the oil quantity is proper. If the mix crumbles, add little bit more oil. It helps in keeping shapparpara crisp and soft.
Slowly keep on adding water and prepare tight dough. Apply little bit oil on ready dough and keep it covered for half an hour.
After half an hour, clean the kitchen top and roll the dough in any shape – round, rectangle or square.
If you find it difficult to roll the full dough, then make some balls out of it,(the way we prepare for chapatis) and roll them.
Cut the rolled dough with the help of cutter (if you have) or knife in long stripes vertically
Again cut them horizontally in big or small size.
With the help of long handle flat spatula, pick them and transfer on a clean, dry cotton cloth and cover them with the other end of the same cloth. Heat oil and start frying them in small batches between low to medium heat till they turn light brown.
Transfer them on a sieve, so that excess oil gets drained or on butter paper.
Let them cool down completely and only after that start preparing sugar syrup.
Sugar syrup;
In a vessel pour water and switch on gas. Keep the heat on medium. Add sugar and start stirring it.
When sugar melts completely, add milk to clean the impurities of sugar. Immediately, thick foam will start collecting on the edges of the vessel. Remove this impurity with spatula.
Keep on boiling sugar syrup till it reaches two thread consistency (do taar ki chashni). Switch off gas and add cardamom seeds or powder in it. Now add cooled Shakkarpara in the syrup (until we add sugar syrup we should not call them Shakkarpara, but I don’t know any other word).
Keep on mixing them gently (top to bottom and again top) so that all are covered with sugar syrup evenly without breaking.
Constantly keep on mixing, until all syrup dries and covers all Shakkarparas. Constant mixing will help in keeping all Shakkarparas separate instead turning in a big lump, and later while separating them, many will break.
Let them cool down completely and fill in an air tight container.
