Baked ShakarPara – Sweet and Flaky
"ShakarPara is a sweet Indian snack traditionally made with all purpose flour (maida) and then coated with sugar or jaggery syrup."
Serves 24 | Prep Time 15 | Cook Time 30Why I Love This Recipe
Crispy from outside but flaky layers that melt in mouth. Sounds yummy! Try this Baked ShakarPara recipe to be amazed. A much healthier alternative compare to traditionally deep fried version of this Indian snack – ShakarPara. ShakarPara is a sweet Indian snack traditionally made with all purpose flour (maida) and then coated with sugar or jaggery syrup. Syrup can be flavored with fennel seeds, freshly pound cardamom powder, star anise or rose water.
Ingredients You'll Need
• 140 gms Whole wheat flour 1 cup
• 130 gms All Purpose flour 1 cup
• 50 gms Almond Flour 1/2 cup
• 1/4 tsp Baking Powder
• 75 ml Ghee clarified butter
• 1/2 cup Water or milk
Directions
1. Take all flours in a large bowl.
2. And then add salt and baking powder, give a good mix to all the dry ingredients.
3. Add warm ghee and rub the flour with ghee.Flour and Mowen being mixed for ShakarPara Dough
4. Press some flour between your palm- it should form a shape (& not crumble) – means oil is enough and well incorporated.
5. Start adding water little by little, until the dough just comes together, dough needs to be on stiffer side.
6. After 15 minutes, take one part knead it little more to smooth it out, once smoothed roll it like a thick roti, around 1/4 inch thickness.
7. And then cut it into square or rectangles. Basically idea is to cut into shape with less points so that when we coat them with sugar syrup there would be less breakage.
8. Repeat with the remaining dough balls until all dough is finished.
9. Preheat the oven at 375 °F.
10. Transfer all the pieces on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.ready to bak shakarpara on a baking tray
11. Place the baking sheet in a preheated oven and bake for 14 minutes. Time may vary depending on the size and thickness of the para pieces baked shakarpara before lacing in sugar syrup.
12. Meanwhile, in another wok, add sugar, water, fennel seeds and star anise and put the pan on high heat. Stir until the sugar melts, in around 2 minutes.
13. After the sugar melts, lower the heat to medium and let the sugar simmer for 2-3 more minutes and check the temperature using candy thermometer. It should be at thread stage which is 215 °F–234 °F/101 °C–112 °C. We are looking for lower temperature of thread consistency. Don’t let the syrup temperature go beyond 215-220 °F.
14. Then add the baked dough pieces/Para in the sugar syrup and start stirring.
15. The syrup will continue to thicken but keep stirring. Remember the heat is off at this point.
16. The sugar crystallizes in around 7-8 minutes and starts coating the baked shakarpara, make sure all pieces are well coated with sugar syrup.
17. When all the baked Shakarpara pieces are well coated and sugar syrup has crystalized remove from the pan and spread it on the cooled baking sheet to bring all the pieces at room temperature before storing in a container.
18. Baked shakarpara will easily last for 3-4 weeks at room temperature.