Crushed Peanut Chikki is a very popular Indian brittle (sweet) recipe made of two main ingredients crushed roasted peanuts and jaggery and flavored with cardamom. It's also one of my favorite variety of chikki/gajak.
This year I decided to make my favorite chikki, Crushed Peanut Chikki along with Tilgud Ladoo for Lohri and Makarsankranti festivities.
Its a very simple chikki recipe made from crushed roasted peanuts and jaggery syrup and I like to add some cardamom flavor to it. Its absolutely delicious, healthy, very addictive and great snack for winters.
Lonavala is a well known hub for chikki and you will find dedicated shops just selling tons of variety. For me it was like a kid in the candy store. I never really liked sweets as kids but loved to gorge on chikki.
Our trip to Lonavala would be incomplete without buying all the delicious varieties of chikki and as far as I can remember crushed chikki has always been on the top of my favorites.
What is Chikki
Chikki is also known as gajak in the northern India and more popular during the winters especially during the celebration of Lohri and Makarsankranti.
There are many varieties of chikki based on the ingredients used like peanuts, dry fruits, sesame seeds etc but the base is always same that is gud or jaggery. Sugar and liquid glucose is also used at times in combination of jaggery.
Chikki is made by mixing the main ingredient like peanuts with the jaggery syrup which is then spread and cut in squares while its still warm and then broken into pieces on cooling to make brittles or chikki.
Ingredients for Crushed Peanut Chikki:
Crushed chikki is made of two main ingredients roasted peanuts that are crushed to a coarse consistency. It helps bring out the nutty flavor even more.
Second is jaggery syrup made my melting the jaggery to the right consistency so that when it sets its forms the perfect brittle that is crunchy (not chewy) and doesn't stick to your teeth.
In addition to these two, the other ingredient is cardamom powder that provides a nice touch of warmth and flavor to this nutty dish.
Jaggery syrup:
This is the main component that can make or break the recipe. Cooking the sweet syrup till the right consistency is important to get that perfect brittle (not chewy) texture for chikki.
There are multiple ways to test the consistency.
One is to drop a small portion of the syrup into a bowl of water. It should turn hard (also called hard ball stage or candy stage.) and break easily like a brittle without forming any strings.
Second, try throwing that hardened ball into water and you should hear a sound to tell the syrup is ready.
Alternately you can chew that hard ball to check its not chewy or sticking to your teeth.
The color of the jaggery at this point will have changed to sightly dark amber (not too dark though). Don't cook the jaggery beyond this point or else it will burn and leave an unpleasant taste and super dark color.
Step by Step Method:
Roasting Peanuts:
We need roasted peanuts for this recipe. You can either buy unsalted roasted peanuts from grocery stores and save time doing this step or if you have the raw peanuts, follow this method to roast them.
Heat a pan on medium low heat and roast the peanuts stirring intermittently. Once they are toasted, you can see the change in color for a few which get de-skinned during this roasting process.
Switch off the flame, stir for a few more mins and let them sit until easy to handle or allow to cool completely.
Take a handful of peanuts and rub then between your palms to de-skin. Once done, take a wide sieve to filter out the skin.
Grind them to a coarse consistency using a food processor. Add cardamom powder to it, mix and keep aside.
You can roast peanuts a day or two in advance and keep handy.
Making Crushed Peanut Chikki
Keep a baking tray or plate lined with parchment paper ready. Grease a rolling pin or back of a measuring cup with ghee and keep ready.
We will use this to spread and shape the mixture.
Heat a pan (nonstick preferably) on medium low and to it add jaggery along with water. Keep stirring continuously till the jaggery melts and is smooth and creamy.
Stir in ghee and cook on low flame stirring intermittently until frothy/bubbly and the color changes to slightly dark amber color.
At this point take a small bowl of water and drop few drops of jaggery into it to see if it has reached the hard ball consistency.
If it hardens and breaks easily like candy without any stringy consistency that means the syrup is ready. The hardened jaggery should be brittle and not soft.
You can also check by tasting the hardened jaggery to see if it sticks to your teeth in which case you can cook for a couple of mins and do the water test again.
Do not cook past the hard ball consistency as the jaggery will burn and give a very dark amber color.
Once you have the right jaggery syrup consistency, stir in the peanuts and mix until well combined. This step should be done quickly before the mixture hardens.
Switch off the flame and immediately transfer the mixture to the pre-lined tray or surface with parchment paper. Using the back of a greased measuring cup or rolling pin, spread the mixture as thin as you like but not too thin.
Cut into squares while it is hot. Allow to set about 5 mins or as long as needed and then break the squares. They should snap off easily.
Allow to cool completely and store in air tight container. Crushed Peanut Chikki is ready!!
Other Lohri and Makarsankranti recipes
Hope you enjoy this Crushed Peanut Chikki as much as we do!! If you give this recipe a try, please rate by clicking stars ⭐️ in the recipe card. Thank you ❤️ ! You can also follow me on Facebook Instagram to see what’s cooking in my kitchen!!
Crushed Peanut Chikki
Ingredients
- 1 cup peanuts raw or or roasted unsalted peanuts
- 1 cup jaggery roughly chopped
- ½ teaspoon ground cardamom powder
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1 teaspoon ghee and some more for greasing
Instructions
Roasting the peanuts: (can be skipped if using roasted unsalted peanuts)
- Heat a pan on medium low heat and roast the peanuts stirring intermittently. Once they are toasted, you can see the change in color for a few which get de-skinned during this roasting process. Switch off the flame, stir for a few more mins and let them sit until easy to handle or allow to cool completely.
- Take a handful of peanuts and rub then between your palms to de-skin. Once done, take a wide sieve to filter out the skin.
- Grind them to a coarse consistency using a food processor. Add cardamom powder to it, mix and keep aside. You can roast peanuts a day or two in advance and keep handy.
For Making Chikki
- Heat a pan (nonstick preferably) on medium low and to it add jaggery along with water. Keep stirring continuously till the jaggery melts and is smooth and creamy.
- Stir in ghee and cook on low flame stirring intermittently until frothy/bubbly and the color changes to slightly dark amber color.
- At this point take a small bowl of water and drop few drops of jaggery into it to see if it has reached the hard ball consistency. If it hardens and breaks easily like candy without any stringy consistency then the syrup is ready. The hardened jaggery should be brittle and not soft. You can also check by tasting the hardened jaggery to see if it sticks to your teeth in which case you can cook for a couple of mins and do the water test again. Do not cook past the hard ball consistency as the jaggery will burn and give a very dark amber color.
- Once you have the right jaggery syrup consistency, stir in the peanuts and mix until well combined. These below steps should be done quickly before the mixture hardens.
- Switch off the flame and immediately transfer the mixture to the pre-lined tray or surface with parchment paper.
- Using the back of a greased measuring cup or rolling pin, spread the mixture as thin as you like but not too thin. Cut into squares while it is hot. Allow to set about 5 mins or as long as needed and then break the squares. They should snap off easily.
- Allow to cool completely and store in air tight container. Crushed Peanut Chikki is ready!!
Happy Festivities and Snacking!!
Shweta
I love the recipe very much. I made it as per the instructions of hard ball consistency, n it came out well
Thank you! Happy to know you liked it!!