Munthiri Murukku, a crunchy and delicious snack made from the rice flour and cashews as main ingredients. This murukku is so easy to make and it has such a nice flavor from the cashews. It's one of my recent favorite snacks to make for evening tea.

If you're looking for something different from the traditional snacks to make for this Diwali, then i would highly recommend to try this murukku. 

Rice Flour

For this murukku, i have used the store bought rice flour. Make sure to use the fine variety of rice flour or you can use Idiyappam flour. 

In case you want to try this murukku with home made rice flour, i have a recipe for that, so do check it out here.

Cashews 

I have used 15 whole cashews for 1 cup of rice flour. If you have splitted cashews only, then  use around 30 pieces. Make sure that the cashews are well soaked before grinding, it will help to make smooth cashew paste without any grains of cashews. 

Sesame Seeds

I always add sesame seeds or cumin seeds to the murukku for the flavor. Adding those elevates the flavor of the murukku to the next level. So i highly recommend to use either one of those depending on your liking.

In this recipe, i have used white sesame seeds but of course you can use the black sesame seeds too. Taste wise both are the same.

Now let's check out how to make this crunchy and delicious murukku.

Munthiri Murukku | Cashew Murukku

Preparation Time : 20 mins | Cooking Time : 20 mins | Serves : 6 
Recipe Category: Snacks | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Cashew Murukku, Munthiri Murukku, Murukku Munthiri Murukku, a crunchy and delicious snack made from the rice flour and cashews as main ingredients.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients

Rice flour - 1 cup

Cashews - 15 

Sesame Seed - 2 tsp

Butter ( melted) - 1 tbsp

Salt - to taste

Water - as needed

Oil - for frying

Procedure

First soak the cashews in 1/4 cup of warm water for 30 mins and then grind into smooth paste in a mixie/blender. Then in a large bowl, measure and add the rice flour.

Add salt, sesame seeds and butter to the rice flour.

Mix it all well together and then add the cashew paste and mix it with the flour.

Then add the water(i used the mixie jar washed water) as needed to make a soft dough. Next take the murukku press and use the star shaped disc for the murukku press and fill the press with the dough and close it with the lid.

Heat the oil for frying and then press the dough in concentric circles or as you wish on a wooden board or on small plates. Once the oil is well heated, then gently transfer them into the oil. Cook till the shhh sound stops and then take it out of the oil.

Delicious and crunchy Munthiri Murukku / Cashew Murukku is ready.

Related: How to make Mullu Murukku

Notes:

• Store it in a air tight container and it stays well for up to 7 days.

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Rava Badam Ladoo, a delicious and rich sweet made from the semolina, almond flour and sugar as the main ingredients. If you're looking for a new variety of ladoo to make at home for this Diwali, then try this simple yet amazing Rava Badam Ladoo.

Couple of months back, i had some almond flour at my pantry which was bought a while ago so i wanted to finish it off before it goes rancid. And i had this idea of making ladoo with it so i gave it a try and it turned out so good with little overpowering of sweet. 

So next time, i made this ladoo again for Krishna Jeyanthi with reduced sugar and it was a perfect melt in your mouth ladoo.  

Sugar 

Normally for the regular rava ladoo, i add 1/3 cup of sugar for 1 cup of rava which is perfect for our taste. Here, even though i added 1/2 cup of almond flour in addition to the rava, i have added only 1/3 cup( heaped ) because generally almond flour doesn't need much sugar.

But if you have a really sweet tooth or your kids prefer more sweetness in their sweets then you can add up to 1/2 cup of sugar for the given quantity.

Now let's check out how to make this yummy Rava Badam Ladoo.

Rava Badam Ladoo | Diwali Recipe

Preparation Time : 10 mins | Cooking Time : 10 mins | Serves : 2 
Recipe Category: Curry | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Rava Badam Ladoo, Badam Ladoo, Ladoo Recipe Rava Badam Ladoo, a delicious and rich sweet made from the semolina, almond flour and sugar as the main ingredients.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients

Rava - 1/2 cup

Almond flour - 1/2 cup

Sugar - 1/3 cup(heaped)

Cardamom - 2 

Ghee - 2 to 3 tbsp

Cashew - 8 to10

Procedure

Heat a pan with a tsp of ghee and then add the rava and roast till it's aromatic.

Transfer the rava into the mixie/blender jar and let it cool a bit. In the meantime, add the almond flour in the same pan and roast till it's aromatic.

Transfer the roasted almond flour into a big bowl and then grind the rava into fine powder and add into almond flour.

Next add the sugar into the mixie/blender jar along with the cardamom seeds and grind into fine powder and add into the rava-almond flour mixture.

Mix it all well together and then heat the remaining ghee in a pan and add the cashews and roast till it's golden brown. 

Then add the roasted cashews along with the ghee into the rava mixture and mix it all together well.

Take a small portion of the rava mixture and start making the ladoos.

Delicious and flavorful rava ladoo is ready.

Related: Rava Coconut Ladoo

Notes:

• Cashews are optional and you can totally skip it.

 

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Badam Halwa Using Almond flour | Easy Badam Halwa

Badam Halwa, a rich and delicious sweet made with almond, milk, ghee and sugar. Even today, it's consider as one of the  luxurious sweets because of its richness and heavenly taste.   

Traditionally, Badam Halwa is made from the whole almonds and the whole process is taking a very long time because it involves soaking the almonds, peeling them and then ground them into fine paste. Now, thanks to the readily available almond flour so that you can skip all those steps and make the badam halwa under 30 mins. 

Almond Flour 

In the market, if you're looking for 'grounded almond', you can find almond flour and almond meal. This recipe requires almond flour not the almond meal. Almond flour is basically made from the blanched almonds .So make sure to get the almond flour which has more fine texture compared to almond meal.

Also, in some places, almond meal is made with whole skinned almonds, so the color of the almond meal would be little darker compared to almond flour.

Flavoring Agents

Here in this recipe, i have used both saffron and cardamom for the flavors. I never thought of making Badam Halwa without saffron. But one of my friends told me that she liked it without any flavoring because that's how badam halwa is made by her family for years. 

So it's more of a personal choice or how you like it than what recipe calls for, right?. Hence you can use any one of this flavoring agents or you can skip the both . Still it would be delicious.

 

Milk

Whole or full fat milk is the best for this halwa. For this badam halwa recipe, I have used 1.5 cups of liquid out of which 1 cup is milk. You can make this recipe with 1/2 cup of milk too. But the richness and the creaminess wouldn't be the same. 

Adding more milk would increase the cooking time but however it gives the rich flavor so i highly recommend to use the given quantity of milk for better tasting halwa.

Now let's see how to make this delicious and rich badam halwa!

Badam Halwa Using Almond flour

Preparation Time : 0 mins | Cooking Time : 25 mins | Serves : 4 
Recipe Category: Sweets | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Badam Halwa with Almond flour, Almond flour halwa Badam Halwa, a rich and delicious sweet made with almond, milk, ghee and sugar.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients

Almond flour/ meal - 1 cup

Sugar - 1/2 cup

Water - 1/2 cup

Milk - 1 cup

Saffron - a few strands 

Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp

Ghee - 1/4 cup

Procedure

First soak the saffron in 2 tbsp of warm milk for 30 mins. Heat a non-stick pan, add the 2 tbsp of ghee, let it melt completely and then add the almond flour.

Keep the heat in medium and roast the almond flour in the ghee for 3-4 mins. Make sure that the almond flour doesn't change color. Next keep the heat  low and add the water.

Cook till all the water is absorbed by the almond flour. Next add the remaining milk after using i2 tbsp for soaking saffron and mix it continuously so that it doesn't form any lump and smooth. Now increase the heat to medium.

Cook the mixture till the milk quantity is reduced to 1/2(Make sure that the heat is medium and stir it frequently otherwise the bottom would be burnt). Now add the sugar. When the sugar melts, the mixture again loosen a bit. 

Cook the mixture till it become thick. It would take approximately 18-20 mins after adding the milk to the mixture with medium heat. When the mixture starts to thicken, it splatter a bit, so be careful.   At this stage add the saffron milk. Mix it well and the mixture turns pale yellow.

Finally add the remaining ghee and cardamom powder. Cook it for another 3-4 mins and switch off the flame.

Delicious Badam Halwa is ready.

Related : How to make Bombay Karachi Halwa

You can serve this halwa in a bowl or you can pack a spoonful of halwa in a butter paper and serve it like in marriage function. Store the remaining in the refrigerator.

Related: How to make Almond Flour Cookies

Notes:

• This Halwa tends to thicken when it's cool down completely. So remove from the heat when it's a bit runny.
• Added a few pistachios for garnishing on the top. But this halwa doesn't need any nuts.

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Mohanthal, a traditional Gujarathi sweet made from the besan / chickpeas flour. It's one of my favorite sweets made with besan. The flavor and the taste of Mohanthal is simply amazing. Trust me, it's so addictive and you can't stop it with just one piece of  Mohanthal. 

As a South Indian, i was never aware of this for a very long time, a couple of years ago only i came to know about this sweet. By looking at the ingredients and the process of making this sweet itself, i knew that would be delicious. 

As of now, i have made this sweet a lot of times on various occasions and it's always a big hit.  Since this was a new sweet to me initially, i have browsed through a lot of recipes and tried different ratios of ingredients every time when i make and eventually found the recipe that i like the most.

As of now, i have made this sweet a lot of times on various occasions and it's always a big hit.  Since this was a new sweet to me initially, i have browsed through a lot of recipes and tried different ratios of ingredients every time when i make and eventually found the recipe that i like the most.

Many recipes call for khoya/mawa for making mohanthal but in today's recipe that i'm sharing, i haven't used khoya but still the mohanthal has melt in your mouth texture. 

Roasting the besan/kadalai maavu

Roasting the besan properly is the key to make delicious mohanthal. Since my kitchen has yellow light, i have taken the picture of the besan in daylight for three main stages that you can see  in the pic below.

Make sure to keep the flame in low-medium and roast the besan well. It shouldn't be burned at any stage and at the same time it should be dark brown after roasting in the ghee. Then once you add the milk to the besan-ghee mixture, it instantly turns reddish brown in color (last pic in the collage below) and that's the time to remove from the heat. 

Sugar Syrup Consistency 

Once the besan is roasted well, half the work is already done. Next is the sugar syrup. Make sure to boil the sugar syrup till it reaches one string consistency. That's the key to setting the mohanthal. 

If the sugar syrup passes the one string consistency, then the mohanthal would be hard. Or if the sugar syrup doesn't reach the one string consistency, then the mohanthal wouldn't set and be like halwa. 

Take the sugar syrup with the spoon and add a few drops in a small bowl. After a few secs, it should be bearable hot, at that time, take the sugar syrup between your thumb and index finger, pull the fingers gently, a single thread should form. That's the correct stage for sugar syrup.

Beginners Tips 

• Don't leave the besan unattended while roasting. It easily gets burned at the bottom.
• If it's not set after a few hours, then place it on the refrigerator and it will set immediately.

Happy Deepavali to all ! Have a fun-filled day with your loved ones. Will see you all again in another post soon. 

Mohanthal | Gujarathi Mohanthal Recipe

Preparation Time : 5 mins | Cooking Time : 30 mins | Serves : 6 
Recipe Category: Sweet | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Mohanthal, Mohanthal without Khoya , Mohanthal without mawa , Mohanthal sweet,Gujarathi Mohanthal Mohanthal, a traditional Gujarathi sweet made from the besan / chickpeas flour. It's one of my favorite sweets made with besan.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients

Kadalai Maavu / Besan - 1 cup

Sugar - 1/2 cup

Ghee - 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp

Milk - 1/4 cup + 1.5 tbsp

Water - 1/4 cup

Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp

Almonds(silvered) - a few (optional)

Procedure

First take the besan in a bowl, add 1 tbsp of ghee and 1.5 tbsp of milk into it. 

Mix it well with your hands and then sieve the mixture through the siever.

The besan looks like a fine beach sand, that's the perfect texture for mohanthal. Next heat a thick bottomed kadai, add the remaining 1/2 cup ghee.

When the ghee starts to warm up, add the besan mixture and mix it well. 

Roast the besan in the ghee till it turns into dark brown.It takes around 15-18 mins in the low medium flame. Stir the mixture continuously to avoid burning at the bottom. Initially the mixture would be thick, roasting continuously would make the mixture lighter and a little bit thinner.

Once the mixture is dark brown, add the remaining 1/4 cup of cup and mix it well. The mixture instantly turns into reddish brown. 

Colors of besan at each stages. Since my kitchen has yellow light, I have captured the  three stages of besan color alone in day light for easy understanding 

Once the mixture turns reddish brown, remove the besan mixture from the heat and keep it aside. Next let's make sugar syrup, add the sugar and water in a sauce pan and bring into boil.

 Keep the flame in medium and boil the syrup till it reaches one string consistency. Next add the sugar syrup and cardamom powder into the besan mixture and mix it well.

 Once it all comes together as a homogenous mixture. Put it in the flame and cook it for around 3-4 mins or until it leaves the sides of the pan.

Then transfer the mixture into the ghee applied pan(i used parchment paper also for safety) . Garnish the top with the almonds and let it cool completely. Once it completely cools down, cut into desired shape.

Delicious Mohanthal is ready to serve.

Related:How to make Milk Cake 

Notes

• You can garnish with any types of nuts or edible silver paper or leave it as it is also.
• I have used full fat milk and highly recommend to use that for rich taste.

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