Peanut Chikki (Burfi)

About Peanut Chikki

Peanut chikki is a popular munching item which is available all over India. It is also called Badavara badami, meaning poor man’s almonds because it is sold in the smallest of shops in poorest of region simply because it is cheap and sells. As a child I remember my mom made it by mixing roasted peanuts with jaggery syrup. I also remember seeing them at the small make-shift shops alongside the streets of malleshwaram in Bangalore where I grew up. At school we used to wait until lunch intervals to run to a nearby shops to buy Chikki at 5 paisa per piece.

What you need to have:

Peanuts – 100 grams/1 cup

Sugar – 100 grams/little less than 1 cup

Pure ghee – 1 teaspoon

cardamom – 3-4

Roasted peanut powder and sugar powder

What you do with what you have:

1. Roast peanuts for about 15 minutes on a medium flame until you get a pleasant aroma. At this point the peanuts must be very easy to peal.

2. Powder sugar fine in the mixer/blender.

3. Peal the roasted peanuts, add (pealed) cardamom and crush them fine in a mixer/blender.

4. In a shallow bowl on the flame, take 1 teaspoon of pure ghee. Add powdered sugar from Step 2 and keep stirring on a medium flame.

5. When sugar powder melts completely switch off the flame and add powdered peanuts from Step 3.

6. Stir this mixture and when well mixed, spread this mixture on a wooden board.

7. Roll this with chapathi roller & cut into pieces immediately as shown below.

Chikkies rolled and being cut

What they look like:

Ready for serving/packaging

Store in air tight containers and they remain crispy for about 2-3 weeks.

What to remember:

1. Do not melt sugar powder on high flame since it might turn black and bitter.

2. The mixture from Step 6 should be rolled and cut before it is allowed to cool. In fact, even the process of cutting itself should be quick because one end of the rolled mixture might cool off while you are cutting another end.

3.If sugar and peanut is added in equal quantity , the burfi turns out sticky, hence i add little less sugar powder to avoid it from the burfies turning out sticky.

How long it takes: 45 minutes

Number of Servings: 25-30