Sweet Maida Biscuits or shankarpali or sharkarpara or sweet diamond cuts or sweet kalakala or sweet thukkada recipe with step by step pictures.
Sweet maida biscuits are famous south Indian bakery sweet. It is available in both cube shape and diamond shape with mild sweetness. It is very easy to make and even a beginner can make it with 100% perfection.
It is a popular diwali snack in our neighborhood and it can be prepared using maida and wheat flour. you can not see much difference in both the flours and here I have described the method using wheat flour.
I have added melted butter to give soft crunchy taste and it can be substituted by ghee. I sometimes use milk for making the dough depends upon how big the batch is. For small batch, I use warm milk and for large batch, I use warm water.
Basic Information:
Preparation Time: 5 minutes
Idle time: 30 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Makes: approximately 2 cups
Ingredients:
Sugar – 1/3 cup
Green cardamom – 2
Wheat flour – 1 and ¼ cup
Butter – 2 tbsp, melted
Salt – a pinch
Warm water – as required
Oil – for deep frying
Video Recipe:
Method with stepwise pictures:
1) In a mixie jar, add 1/3 cup of sugar and 2 cardamom. Make a powder of it.
2) Add this powdered sugar to the bowl. Add whole wheat flour, melted butter, salt and mix well.
3) Once everything is mixed well, try to hold the flour using hand and see if the flour is able to hold as shown in the picture.
4) then, add the warm water slowly and make a smooth dough. Make sure to add very little at a time. the sugar in the flour mix tends to melt when we add warm water. So please be cautious. If the dough is watery, feel free to add more flour in order to make it as smooth dough.
5) Cover and keep it aside for 30 minutes.
6) After 30 minutes, roll the dough as a thick circular disc. The thick disk is approximately 1/2 cm to 1 cm in thickness.
7) Using a pizza cutter or knife cut into a diamond or square shape.
8) Then fry the square shapes in oil. The oil should be in medium flame until it is completely fried.
9) Stir frequently so that all the sides turn golden brown.
10) Once it is fried well and turned golden brown, transfer it to a plate.
11) Cool down and pack it in a airtight container.
Serving Suggestions:
1) Serve it along with a hot tea or coffee as an evening snack.
Notes:
1) It stays good for a month if fried well and handled properly in an air tight container.
2) Oil should be in a medium flame. Then only it cooks perfectly. It takes approx. 3 to 5 minutes to cook one batch perfectly inside out. If the oil is hot, then the outer part becomes brown fast but inside part won’t cook. So make sure to keep the flame in medium.
3) Adjust the sugar quantity as per taste. The given quantity is perfect for this recipe.
4) Instead of wheat flour, all purpose flour or maida can be used.
5) A pinch of baking soda can be added to this recipe and it is an optional ingredients. If baking soda is added, it can be prepared instantly without keeping it idle for 30 minutes.
