Quick Thandai and Gujiya recipes in the traditional way

Holi in various parts of India is incomplete without Thandai and Gujiya. Let’s learn these famous traditional recipes, which are brand ambassadors of Holi.

Thandai-

Take ¾ cups of blanched almonds, 3–4 tablespoon blanched pistachio, 3 tablespoon soaked poppy seeds (Khas Khas), 3 tablespoon soaked melon seeds, 2 tablespoons soaked cashew nuts. Soak the ingredients in 3 tablespoons warm milk for about half an hour. Blend everything together to form a thick and smooth paste. Keep it aside.

In another container, take 4–5 green cardamoms, 8–10 black peppercorns, 1 teaspoon dried and crushed rose petals, and 1-inch cinnamon. Grind all these ingredients into a fine powder and keep it aside.

In a bowl, add 1½ litres of full cream milk to boil. After 10 minutes of boiling on medium flame, add a generous pinch of saffron. Stir well to spread its flavor evenly across the thick consistency of milk. Add 1 cup sugar to this condensed milk mixture and keep stirring lightly until it’s fully melted. Now, add the dry-fruit paste and spice powder you prepared earlier to this condensed, mix well and boil.

Boil the preparation until you see bubbles appearing on the surface, after turning off the flame, refrigerate the preparation and serve your thandai in 30 minutes!

Try this special thandai recipe, serve it in kulhads with garnishing of chopped almonds.

Tips -

• You may store thandai spice powder for 1–2 months in the refrigerator.
• If you love to add rose water to thandai, make sure to add it once the thandai is cooled down.
• If you want to make thandai for kids, don’t forget to decrease the peppercorns.

Gujiya recipe

Take 1 cup Khoya (reduced solid milk) and roast it to light brown in color, then allow it to cool down and settle in a bowl. Meanwhile, take 3 cups of white flour (maida) and add ½ cup ghee. Mix ghee evenly throughout the flour, add warm water and knead it into a tight dough. Take care that you don’t over-knead it, or it’ll fall apart. Let the dough rest for 10–15 minutes.

Now take the cooled Khoya and add 3 tablespoon dried coconut, 3 tablespoon refined sugar, 1 teaspoon cardamom powder, a pinch of nutmeg powder, chopped almonds, and pistachios to it. Mix well and keep this stuffing aside.

Make a thin sheet out of the dough. Cut circles out of it and place stuffing prepared onto them. Close them into semi-spherical gujiya shape and use a fork to make the famous gujiya edge design. Deep fry them until they get a golden brown color and then let them cool down for a crispy taste.

Tips -

• Keep the maida dough covered with a moist cloth and keep pulling little amount as you make.
• If your stuffing keeps getting dry while filling gujiya, you can maintain the consistency by adding tablespoons of milk, as and when needed.
• Make one or two gujiyas, let them rest for a few minutes, and do a test frying in a small amount of ghee in the pan. If they don’t split and force out the stuffing into oil, continue to roll the fresh batches out.