Sesame gajak recipe with easy steps to prepare healthy snack at home. This is a dry desi confectionery (brittle) prepared with jaggery and sesame seeds (Til). Also popularly known as tilgul vadi.
Gajak is usually prepared during winter as it is said to prevent us from cold. With Sesame (Til in Hindi) and jaggery, it has a good nutritional value.
With Diwali and winter coming up some may be looking for healthier Diwali sweets, so posting this. Gajak is also made for Makar Sankranti, Lohri festival.
Til gajak Ingredients
Simple ingredients make up this easy and quick snack.
- Jaggery (Gur in Hindi)
- Sesame seeds (Til)
- Ghee
See Recipe card for full list and quantities.
Gur ki gajak stepwise photos
- Grease a platform with ghee to begin with. You can also grease a rolling pin or use a butter paper for rolling without sticking.
2. After that, take a pan and start roasting it in medium heat.
3. It will start to pop after a minute or so. Keep stirring constantly for even roasting.
4. Once you see golden sesame seeds here and there you can transfer to a plate for cool down. Make sure all are roasted well (stir well to ensure this)
Jaggery syrup
5. Then in the same kadai, add jaggery powder, water.
6. Continue by stirring to dissolve the jaggery. Keep the flame only in low.
Keep a bowl of water in the side to check syrup consistency. When it starts to boil and becomes frothy, add ghee and mix.
7. Add couple of drops to the water and check.
8. First, it will be soft. Then you will be able to take out the string but it bends.
9. Continue heating and checking. The correct stage is when you pour a little syrup in water, it should harden and you should be able to take out. It should break crisp. This is what we are looking for.
10. Beyond this, the syrup will get burnt, so be careful while checking, you can even switch off the flame while checking.
Add cooking soda and mix briskly.
11. The syrup will become slightly pale with micro bubbles.
12. In low heat itself, add sesame seeds and mix quickly.
13. When all the seeds mix and forms a mass switch off.
14. Then transfer the mixture immediately to greased platform.
15. Put the butter paper over it and roll it using rolling pin.
16. Do it gently first to spread out and then press swiftly to roll out thin.
17. After that, make impressions using knife (no need to cut and take out) as desired.
18. It gets cooled so fast, so you have to act quickly otherwise it will harden or become brittle.
As it cools you can easily take out the gajak and finally break in the lines.
Stays good for a week in room temperature. Perfect to enjoy tilgul vadi as after meal snack.
My notes
I did this last year in an Instagram live, so tried several times before. Here are some points to note before making.
- Do the process in low flame as we are handling jaggery syrup with low water concentration. The stages pass quickly and can get burnt easily. No kidding, so strictly low heat only.
- You will definitely know the stage when to be careful as you get a pleasant jaggery flavor clearly.
- Adding a tiny pinch of cooking soda is optional but it gives a soft texture. Do not add more than mentioned.
- Make sure to roast the sesame well as it's the only way we are cooking.
- You can rinse and dry sesame seeds in a clean kitchen cloth and dry in shade if you feel it has impurities.
Sweets for Diwali
Check out my other Diwali sweets recipes:
Recipe card
Gajak recipe | Jaggery sweets
Ingredients
- ½ cup Sesame seeds
- ½ cup Jaggery powder
- ½ teaspoon ghee
- 1 pinch cooking soda
- 1 tablespoon water
Instructions
- Grease a platform with ghee to begin with. You can also grease a rolling pin or use a butter paper for rolling without sticking.
- After that, take a pan and start roasting it in medium heat.
- It will start to pop after a minute or so. Keep stirring constantly for even roasting.
- Once you see golden sesame seeds here and there you can transfer to a plate for cool down. Make sure all are roasted well (stir well to ensure this)
- Then in the same kadai, add jaggery powder, water.
- Continue by stirring to dissolve the jaggery. Keep the flame only in low.
- Keep a bowl of water in the side to check syrup consistency. When it starts to boil and becomes frothy, add ghee and mix.
- Add couple of drops to the water and check.
- First, it will be soft. Then you will be able to take out the string but it bends.
- Continue heating and checking. The correct stage is when you pour a little syrup in water, it should harden and you should be able to take out. It should break crisp. This is what we are looking for.
- Beyond this, the syrup will get burnt, so be careful while checking, you can even switch off the flame while checking.
- Add cooking soda and mix briskly. In low heat itself, add sesame seeds and mix quickly.
- When all the seeds mix and forms a mass switch off and transfer the mixture immediately to greased platform.
- Put the butter paper over it and roll it using rolling pin. Do it gently first to spread out and then press swiftly to roll out thin.
- Make impressions using knife (no need to cut and take out) as desired.
- It gets cooled so fast, so you have to act quickly otherwise it will harden or become brittle.
- As it cools you can easily take out the gajak and break in the lines.
- Stays good for a week in room temperature. Perfect to enjoy as after meal snack.
Video
Notes
- Do the process in low flame as we are handling jaggery syrup with low water concentration. The stages pass quickly and can get burnt easily. No kidding, so strictly low heat only.
- You will definitely know the stage when to be careful as you get a pleasant jaggery flavor clearly.
- Adding a tiny pinch of cooking soda is optional but it gives a soft texture. Do not add more than mentioned. Make sure to roast the sesame well as it's the only way we are cooking.
- You can rinse and dry sesame seeds in a clean kitchen cloth and dry in shade if you feel it has impurities.
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