Celebrating 10th blog anniversary with Sukhdi / Gud Papdi

This post has been due for a couple of months now but the lazy me kept postponing it. My blog reached a milestone last December, hitting the 10th year mark. Quite an achievement from a personal stand considering that I lose interest in things after a while. Thanks to my readers and fellow bloggers who visit and leave a positive trail and keep me going.

I thought the celebration deserves a treat and so, here comes the sukhdi aka gud papdi. This sweet dish seems to be a quite popular one in Gujarat and the neighboring state of Rajasthan. The basic preparation includes only three ingredients - wheat flour, jaggery and ghee which all are considered to be healthy ones. Yes, in spite of the flak the butter receives because of it's calorie content, the traditional belief in India is that ghee in moderate amounts is good for the body. I am neither fond of nor prepare ghee laden sweets, the only exception being 'Mysore Pak' which is a favorite of everyone at my home including the father-daughter duo who claim to be sweet phobics.

This is a quick preparation but tests your arm strength since you need to keep stirring the mixture the whole time. Properly made sukhdi has a melt in mouth texture. Additional ingredients like nuts / spices can be added to the basic preparation. I used very pale colored jaggery and my sukhdi had a brownish yellow hue but somehow they are looking yellow in the pictures. (That's for people who are wondering why my sukhdi have that color. And also they look firm since they were in the refrigerator for a week or so by the time I took pictures.)

Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour / atta
1/2 cup ghee 
1/2 cup powdered jaggery
 
Method:
* Grease a plate or a circular pan which is at least one inch deep. Take care to powder the jaggery leaving no bits and chunks.
* Heat ghee in a wide non stick pan on medium flame and add the wheat flour. Stir well so that the whole flour is coated with ghee. Continue to stir without stopping until the flour attains a darker hue than the one you started with and you begin to notice the aroma, about 5 to 7 minutes. (If the mixture appears dry while stirring, add a tbsp or more of ghee and continue to stir.)
* Turn off the stove and remove the pan from the heat. Place it on the counter top or any solid surface and immediately add the jaggery and stir quickly to mix until the jaggery gets incorporated into the mixture.
* Pour the mixture into the greased plate and even out the surface with the back of a spatula. Cut into desired shapes when the mixture is still warm and set it aside to let cool. When the sukhdi cools, separate the pieces and store in an airtight container.

This goes to Blogging marathon #73, under the theme 'Sweets prepared in less than an hour'. Check here to find out what the other marathoners are cooking as part of the BM.

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