Delicious, soft tilgul vadis

New recipe for soft tilgul vadis

Tilgul vadis are a popular sweet traditionally made and shared during the harvest festival of Makar Sankranti. This festival is usually celebrated on 14 January each year in different parts of India. A variety of sweets made from sesame seeds (til) and jaggery (gul/gud) are made on this joyful occasion, some crisp, some soft.

This is a recipe for soft tilgul vadis, but an original one developed in the Pat-a-Cake kitchen.

The traditional recipe for soft vadis has been modified to make it fail-proof. The result is something between a soft vadi and a barfi.

And not only has the method been tweaked, the recipe also includes two special ingredients. And let me warn you, it’ll be difficult to stop at eating just one vadi. They’re that tasty.

Ingredients

1 cup (150g) sesame seeds (til)

1 ⅓ cup (300g) jaggery (gul/gud)

¼ cup (4 tbsp) roasted and coarsely ground peanuts

4 tbsp whole wheat flour (atta)

3 tbsp milk powder

3 tbsp pure ghee

1 tsp water

3- 4 tsp milk

1 tsp ground cardamom

3 tbsp chopped almonds and pistachios

(For a less sweet version, the jaggery could be reduced by around 2-3 tablespoons.)

Procedure

IMPORTANT POINTS TO NOTE:

1. Grease the knife/pizza cutter (or the inside of the cookie cutter) before using it.
2. The gul/jaggery I used was firm enough to be grated easily. I weighed 1 and 1/3 cup gul after it was grated. If the gul you use is drier or stickier than what I used, the weight of 1 and 1/3 cup could vary. The gul shouldn’t be too soft and moist or too hard.
3. Depending on how soft the gul you use is, the poured out tilgul mix could take between 10-15 minutes to 30 mins to be firm enough to cut. It should be still slightly warm when you start cutting it.
4. If your gul is too soft and moist, the vadis may turn out to be too chewy.

OK. Now that I’ve made those clarifications, let’s see how we can make these delicious tilgul vadis.

1. Lightly roast the sesame seeds on low heat for around 3-4 minutes till they change colour slightly.
2. Grate the jaggery or break it into small pieces. (The jaggery shouldn’t be too old and extra hard.)
3. Roast the wheat flour (atta) on low heat along with 1 tbs of pure ghee for around 2-3 minutes till it’s pale brown in colour. Remove it into a bowl and let it cool.
4. In a larger bowl, mix the ground sesame seeds, ground cardamom, roasted atta, crushed peanuts, and milk powder.
5. To the same vessel in which the atta was roasted, add 1 tbsp pure ghee and the grated jaggery. With the heat on low, stir the jaggery continuously as it melts. Add 1 tsp of water to it so it can melt faster.
6. Once the jaggery melts completely and is about to start boiling, mix in the dry ingredients. Quickly stir everything together. Add 1 tbsp pure ghee and 3 to 4 tsp milk to the mixture and continue stirring it. The ghee and the milk will help everything combine into a soft mass and leave the sides of the vessel. (This should take just a minute or two.)
7. Quickly transfer the hot mixture to a baking pan lined with greased parchment paper. Grease the bottom of a small dish or vati and spread and pat down the tilgul mixture inside the pan.
8. Sprinkle the chopped nuts on the levelled mixture and lightly press them down with the greased vati. Let the mixture cool for around 10-12 minutes.
9. While it is still warm, cut it into squares or rectangles with a pizza cutter or sharp knife or use a cookie cutter to make vadis of different shapes. With the trimmings, you could make laddoos. In fact, you could make soft laddoos out of the whole batch instead of flat vadis.

Enjoy!