Author Notes
Homemade brittle has a special place in my heart. I used to help my mom make peanut brittle using jaggery. Brittle can be made with your favorite nuts or seeds – peanuts, almonds, cashews, sesame seeds or even flax seeds. Jaggery is unrefined form of sugar, and is a more complex carbohydrate than plain sugar. Unlike sugar, which gets absorbed in your body quickly, jaggery is absorbed gradually and the energy from it is released over an extended period of time. This basically means that there won’t be a sugar-high and a crash to follow if you eat jaggery instead of refined sugar.
Jaggery is rich in minerals, mainly iron with traces of other mineral salts. In India, a small piece of jaggery is commonly eaten after a heavy meal as it helps with digestion. Jaggery activates the digestive enzymes and itself changes to acetic acid in the stomach. This speeds up digestion and reduces the strain on digestive tract.
Here is a recipe for a simple Jaggery Brittle! Use your favorite nuts or seeds, you can’t really go wrong with brittle. Brittle also makes a great gift, so it might save you a trip to the mall! —Medha | Farm on Plate
Ingredients
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2 cups
jaggery, chopped in small pieces
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2 cups
almonds or sesame seeds - any nuts or seeds
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1 teaspoon
cardamom powder
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pinch of saffron threads
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1 tablespoon
ghee/coconut oil
Directions
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In a pan, toast nuts or seeds on medium heat. Remove from heat and set aside to cool down.
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n a saucepan heat ghee and jaggery on a very low heat, until they melt and start bubbling. Add cardamom powder and saffron threads. Don’t stir the mixture but swirl the pan for even cooking and caramelizing. Insert thermometer at this point and cook until it reads 155°C/310°F, or till hard crack stage.
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Spread the parchment paper on a baking tray. Now take the jaggery mixture off the heat and quickly add toasted nuts and mix till nuts are coated well. Spread the mixture on baking tray and flatten it with well oiled rolling pin or spatula for desired thickness of brittle.
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Let the brittle cool completely. Break it in desire size pieces and store in air tight container.
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