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
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