Mohanthaal
Mohanthaal is a Gujarati sweet which is just like Lays >>NO-one can eat just one!!! It is a sweet which is always liked by one and all after meal or before meal.
Believe me its not that difficult too. You really don’t need to be very concerned for the sugar-syrup too.
This dish is inspired by one of my dear friend Shweta Vyas. Her name too is the same ,am not joking. I came to know about it through her and then she shared her recipe with me to which I added my own tadka, and now am sharing it with you. Prepare it and enjoy it during festivals or to surprise your guests!
INGREDIENTS:
1. Besan(chickpea or gram flour) – 3 cups
2. Mawa (khoya home-made or solid milk-foods) – 1.5 cups
3. Ghee (clarified butter)– 3⁄4 (0.75)cup + 4 tbsp
4. Doodh(milk) – 0.5 cup or as needed
5. Cheeni(Sugar) – 2.5 cups
6. water for sugar syrup – 1 cup
7. Pista (pistachios chopped )- 3 tbsp
8. Badam (sliced almonds) – 3 tbsp
METHOD:
1. Take a shallow large bowl(paraat) and add besan to it. Now add Ghee in it.
Now start adding milk to it 1 Tbsp each time such that it starts coming together or start forming knots. Don’t add water to form a dough out of it. But slowly add the milk so that it comes together although it is non-glutenous in nature, that is ,it will crumble on kneading. Because of the ghee added in 1st step it will absorb the milk added to it quickly.
Now keep a wok(kadhai) on stove and heat it. Also add ghee to it.
In the meanwhile, take a colander or a steel strainer like the one shown in picture below and remove all the crumbles formed in step 2 to make it a smooth besan powder kind with hands by pressing the dough hard against the strainer such that it crumbles into powder in the container.
This is how it looks after being pressed and powdered. Don’t grind it in a mixer because we don’t want to make it a fine powder but a coarse one like this.
- Add this in the wok and roast it on medium.
6.Stir it constantly so that it might not get burnt at the bottom. Also mix mawa in it evenly and cook till you get the nice aroma of roasted chickpea flour.
- In the meanwhile, take a pan and add sugar,water in it.Put it on high heat and stir till the sugar dissloves.
After about 5 mins ,check the consistency of the sugar syrup by dripping a drop on a cooled surface.Place a drop of cooled syrup between your two fore-fingers and see if you could one thread in it. If yes ,turn off the heat ,if no then stir for another 1 min and check the consistency again.
Once you get one thread consistency ,add it to the besan-mawa mix and sitr well to incorporate it on low heat.
Continue cooking on low heat till the whole mix starts leaving the wok and accumulated like a dough in one side. It should be as thick as a rabdi dough.
Now take a thaali (that is why called mohanthaal) or a tray and grease it with butter or ghee.
Take the thickened batter and spread it in the thaali with the ladle. Now apply some ghee on the bottom of a spoon and pat it on the layers to make them even.
Sprinkle with pistachios , alomnds and chironji as per your choice. Press them again in the burfi or sweet.
After nearly 2 hrs, cut in diamond shapes,or as you like and enjoy.
Note: If you sugar syrup has by chance got 2 threads or 1.5 threads ,don’t worry . The only difference will be in the texture that the burfi would come out a little hard. Also if you are not adding mawa to it, then be careful about the thread of sugar syrup ,because it gets more dried without it. It is better to use ghee in this recipe abundantly , because it helps in quick absorbing of moisture ,milk and prevents it from drying.
Please try this and share your experience here. I would be glad to hear from you.