Kadalai urundai is made with peanut, jaggery as main ingredient. Literally candy with jaggery, peanuts. Very healthy snack, rich in protein and goodness of jaggery which is rich in iron.
Prepare it for snack or for special occasions like Karthigai deepam where you prepare jaggery based snacks.
Check out my Karthigai deepam recipes for full collection and more details about the festival.
This has been a long time due for me to post this, some how kept postponing to try this.
I guess many readers search for kadalai urundai in my blog. We don't make this often, so it took some time for me to try.
Healthy snack
For holidays, I used to go to my grandma's house, have lots of friends over there. My grandma (my own grandma's sister) always make this kadala urundai for snack when ever we go there.
She will make with ease and pack for us too. It will be so crisp, shiny and tasty. How those days the snacks were not junk and it's nutritious and homemade instead!
Kovilpatti famous
Always buy kadala mittai with sprinkled color dry coconut. It gives a lovely flavor to it.
Since mom always insists to eat as its good for health, whenever I remember, I buy and eat. These days, kovilpatti kadalai mittai is getting famous.
I have to yet to taste it to tell me how good it is. I heard they use a proportion of sugar for a perfect candy that is crisp in texture. Understand the texture of syrup purely depends on a quality jaggery too.
But as of now, this is really easy to do at home. I am slightly lazy just for blowing the skin away. Otherwise everything is easy for me.
Top tip
Peanuts - We get peanuts with or without skin, roasted or raw, large or small. I just make sure to buy the small, rounded ones as they are perfect for this.
Make sure to taste for freshness before you start. If it is old stock, then your effort may go for a waste. Old stock tastes like punnaaku as my mom says. It is not pleasant and smells like oil.
Jaggery - This is very important ingredient to get a perfect result. Please try to use good quality one.
How to identify good quality jaggery? I look for not too yellow (artificial color) not too pale either. Also never buy if it looks too moist or have white lumps found anywhere.
These days I love the organic jaggery powder which is less processed.
Why my kadalai mittai turn brittle?
Jaggery syrup did not reach the consistency and you probably added the peanuts earlier stage. The syrup should reach candy consistency.
Use more water to make syrup so that the stages are clear. If you use less water, the stages will be too fast to define.
My notes
- For shiny result, do not stir the jaggery too much while making syrup. Until it dissolves, you can stir.
- Also make sure the syrup reaches the right consistency. Go for the traditional test - pour few drops, gather and make a ball out of it. Drop it over the plate, you should hear a metal sound crisply. I vaguely remember elders saying this but totally forgot until I read in other blogs.
- Use ghee to grease your hands, but do not over do it. Just a thin coat in your palms will do the magic.
- Act fast to avoid heat burn while rolling. If you let the mixture be in hand in a place for few seconds, you probably will feel the heat. So keep it rolling!
- Finally, the mixture may get hardened, slightly heat it over flame to re work on the mixture.
- You have to be patient for making any sweet, do not rush the process keeping the flame too high.
We usually do not make kadalai urundai for karthigai deepam. But I know many make, so I thought this is the best time for me to try and post. Happy Karthigai deepam!
Related posts
Recipe card
Kadalai urundai
Ingredients
- 1 cup Peanut
- ½ cup Jaggery
- ¼ cup Water
- Ghee - for greasing
Instructions
- First, in a heavy bottomed pan, roast the peanut in medium flame with constant stirring.
- It will crack open. Once cooled down, rub the peanuts and eliminate the skin by blowing it away.
- For syrup, heat water and jaggery until it dissolves.
- Filter it through a metal strainer.
- Don't forget to wash the pan as it may have fine impurities.
- Continue heating until the syrup is thick and frothy. Keep the flame low when the syrup nears the consistency as you don't want to miss the right consistency.
- Test the consistency by adding few drops to water and you should be able to form a shiny ball out of it, that holds the shape. (hard ball consistency)
- Add peanuts to it. Mix well.
- After a minute, grease your hands well with ghee and carefully take little mixture with your fingers and shape it to urundai.
Video
Notes
- Jaggery syrup consistency is very important. So make sure to do it patiently.
- Once the syrup reaches the consistency, remove the syrup from stove and add the peanuts. even if you buy peanuts without skin from shop, roast it just before making the peanut balls.
- Do not stir too much after syrup starts boiling. just keep checking for consistency, that's enough. This gives you shiny peanut balls.
- Peanuts must be roasted well for crisp kadalai urundais.
- Every time while making balls, grease well with ghee, otherwise it will be really sticky.
Stepwise photos
1. First, in a heavy bottomed pan, roast the peanut in medium flame with constant stirring. It will crack open. Once cooled down, rub the peanuts and eliminate the skin by blowing it away.
2. For syrup, heat water and jaggery until it dissolves.
3. Filter it through a metal strainer. Don't forget to wash the pan as it may have fine impurities. Continue heating until the syrup is thick and frothy. Keep the flame low when the syrup nears the consistency as you don't want to miss the right consistency.
4. Test the consistency by adding few drops to water and you should be able to form a shiny ball out of it, that holds the shape. (hard ball consistency)
5. Add peanuts to it. Mix well.
6. After a minute, grease your hands well with ghee and carefully take little mixture with your fingers and shape it to urundais.
Store in airtight containers and enjoy! Healthy snack for the family.
vidya says
My fav urundai..lov this one lot..thanx fr sharing raji..
Gomathy Rajkumar says
Nice lovely kadalai urundai Happy karthi gai deepak,last deepam I tried pori urundai recipe from yours I will try this definitely
vidya says
My fav urundai..lov this one lot..thanx fr sharing raji..
A.G.PAVITHRA says
My favorite....
Learn Kolam says
Raje, Saw your post.First i did n't realise it as porayar chithi.Then amma told me.Good presentation.Good for people who is working in the night or doing night shift.They require extra iron & protein which is easily available in this
Sudarshan says
Can I use roasted peanuts readily available in market?
Sudarshan says
Can I use roasted peanuts readily available in market?
Traditionally Modern Food says
My favorite:-) u r tempting me
Raks anand says
Yes you can
kalpakam says
Hi Raji, looks really tempting. How come you managed to remove the skin of the peanuts so well?. And, what is the type of frying pan or chatti that you have used to melt the jaggery.?. Looks different Thanks
Raks anand says
If the peanut is old (not tender and young) and roasted well with patience, it comes off easily 🙂 I have a mini fan and used it to blow away the skin and later sweep the skin 😉
I used a copper bottomed steel chatti 🙂
Bhavani Pratapani says
Do we need to make ladoos when it is hot or can cool down and do?
If we want to spread on plate and cut into squares instead of ladoos , at wat time we need to do it?
Raks anand says
You can cool down until you are able to handle it, do not let completely cool down.
If you want to cut into squares, just pour directly from stove to greased trays.
mohana mahalingam says
How can I make kadalai urundai with glassy look and hard as we get in shops? Somebody told me they are mixing liwuid glucose. As such, how much should be mixed and at what stage? Where can we get liquid glucose?
Raks anand says
If the syrup is made in right consistency and made quickly, it could be shiny through out. I have seen they use a part of white sugar too to get that shining , haven't tried though. Also I have no experience in handling liquid glucose, so could not help you with that, sorry.