Peanut Chikki
Peanut Chikki (Groundnut Chikki, Peanut Brittle) is a healthy, delicious traditional candy made from peanuts and jaggery. It can be eaten alone or with snacks and is a perfect replacement for chocolates. This recipe uses jaggery to make crispier chikkis in easier way. However, you can follow tips given below to make it with sugar as well.
| Ingredients: |
| 1 cup Peanuts (groundnuts) |
| 3/4 cup Jaggery, grated or finely chopped |
| 1 tablespoon + for greasing Ghee (Clarified Butter) |
Follow the given link to make chikki with sugar – Directions for making Chikki with Sugar
Directions for making Chikki with Jaggery:- Roast peanuts in a pan (preferably heavy based pan) on medium flame for approx. 5-6 minutes. Stir constantly to prevent burning.
- Let roasted peanuts cool for 3-4 minutes. Remove its skin while they are little warm and break them into halves.
- Grease surface of counter top or reverse side of a big plate and a rolling pin (belan) with ghee.
- Heat ghee in a heavy bottomed pan over low flame. Add jaggery and stir continuously on low to medium flame.
- When jaggery dissolves, stir and cook for approx. 4-5 minutes on low flame.
- Check consistency of dissolved jaggery by dropping a small drop of it in a bowl filled with water. If jaggery drop turns into a solid drop and sits at the bottom of bowl, then it is cooked otherwise cook it for some more time and repeat the check.
- Turn off flame and add peanut halves. Mix until all peanut halves are coated with dissolved jaggery.
- Pour mixture over previously greased surface.
- Quickly roll the mixture flat using rolling pin. Keep it’s thickness around 1/3-inch.
- Make approx 2 inch apart parallel horizontal and vertical cuts with knife while spread is still hot.
- When cooled, break it into pieces and store in airtight container and enjoy it whenever you like.
Follow steps given below to prepare chikki (brittle) with sugar.
- Follow the recipe from step-1 to step-3.
- Replace jaggery with 1 cup sugar in step-4. Add and melt it in a heated ghee over low flame.
- When sugar dissolves and starts to turn light brown, turn off the flame and add roasted peanuts.
- Follow remaining steps (from step-7 to step-11) as given in the above recipe to prepare peanut sugar chikki.
Tips and Variations:
- Color of peanut chikki depends on the jaggery. If you use golden brown jaggery then it will turn dark brown in color. If you like light brown color then use light yellow jaggery.
- Do not heat jaggery/sugar for a long time otherwise chikki will turn hard.
- Spread and roll out mixture on greased surface when it is hot. Once it cools down, it will be very difficult to roll it out.
- Replace roasted peanuts with roasted til (sesame seeds), dry fruits or roasted chana dal (daliya dal) to make til chikki, dry fruit chikki and roasted chana dal (daliya) chikki respectively.
Taste: Sweet
Serving Ideas: Groundnut chikki prepared with either sugar or jaggery is a great replacement of chocolates for kids and adults alike as it not only satisfies your sweet tooth but also provides proteins.