Chandrakala & Suryakala recipe | Diwali sweets
Chandrakala & Suryakala sweet recipe in Tamil | Diwali special sweet recipes | Deepavalli specialChandrakala sweet, suryakala sweet both are Indian Diwali sweets prepared with maida and khoya as main ingredients.These are prepared during Deepavali festivals or on special occasions at home. Quite a rich sweet as we stuff with kova and drynuts mixture and a syrupy outer layer, perfect for celebrations and festivals.South Indian sweet stalls sure have this sweet. Chandrakala named after Half moon and suryakala, meaning Sun shaped. And also the difficult part for me was the folding method of the sweet. But by practise I can make a super perfect foldings of the sweet. The beauty of the sweet is the foldings and then the taste of the sweet.
Ingredients
For making dough Suryakala / chandrakala dough
- Maida 300 g
- a pinch of salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 70 - 75g Ghee
- Orange food color optional
- 1/4 tsp cardamom powder
- Water as required
For stuffing
- Paal Kova 250-300g
- Dessicated coconuts 3-4 tsp
- Almonds chopped
- Pistachios chopped
- Cashew chopped
For making sugar syrup
- 500g sugar
- water 400 ml
- Saffron
- vanilla / rose essence/ cardamom powder
For frying
- Oil / Ghee
Instructions
To Make dough :
- First lets prepare dough by mixing maida, salt and ghee first.Add water little by little to make dough. Keep aside for 30 mins.
Make stuffing :
- Meanwhile you can prepare the stuffing. Then mix crumbled khoya, sugar powder, other dry nuts. I have used store bought milk sweet or Paal kova to make things easy. Knead well to mix thoroughly. It should not be too crumbly. Now add water little by little and make a soft but stiff dough. Keep aside for 30 mins.
Make sugar syrup :
- Prepare sugar syrup by boiling in medium flame. ½ string consistency is enough for this sweet. That is if you check a drop between your fingers, a string forms and breaks quickly. It will be sticky, not watery. Add cardamom, rose water after switching off the stove. We no need single string consistency.
Preparation of Outer layer
- Knead the dough after 5 mins again to make it smooth and soft without any cracks. Roll and divide into equal sized balls. Roll gently to thick rotis. I used a tiffin box to cut the shapes. Arrange in a plate till we stuff.
Folding Chandrakala (half moon shape)
- To make chandrakala, stuff 2 teaspoon of the khoya in a side of the roti we rolled, fold and cover with the other half. apply water on the edges.Seal and start folding from one end. Pinch, fold and seal continuously as shown in the video and seal the finishing end too. the folding comes by practice.
For suryakala (sun shaped)
- To make suryakala, place the filling in the middle of the roti, cover it with another roti, make sure both of same size and thickness. Apply water on the edges before you start shaping. Press the sides to seal and fold as we did for chandrakala. Repeat to finish.
Cooking sweet :
- Heat oil/ ghee/ vanaspati and fry few per batch. After dropping in oil, cook in medium flame. Make sure you seal the sweet properly so that it doesn't comes out while frying. Keep turning to ensure even browning. Once its cooked and crips outside. Drain from oil and drop in sugar syrup, let it soak for 5 mins in the sugar syrup. Arrange in a plate.
Video
Notes
Notes :
- While kneading dough make sure you add enough ghee and crumble well
- Do not let the syrup pass more than 1 string consistency. For this sweet 1/2 string consistency is more than enough. For safer side you can add few drops lemon juice to prevent crystallization.
- Stuff with enough khoya mixture to get good looking suryakala and chandrakala. Otherwise it will look flat.
- The syrup should go inside the sweet, so make sure to soak for enough time 2-3 mins is enough. Keeping the syrup hot helps.
- The chandrakala and suryakala sweet becomes soft next day and tastes, smells best from next day.
- Make sure to fold properly otherwise the khoya might leak and spoil the oil. If the oil is too hot, khoya will sure come out, so do not let oil smoke.
- If you cook in low to medium flame only the outer layer will be soft enough to absorb the syrup.
- While folding, the edges should have less dough part and the beauty of the sweet is the folding design.
- For best taste, fry in ghee/vanaspati or mix with oil and fry.