Chandrakala is a fancy deep-fried sweet from Northern India.
I discovered chandrakala during a recent visit to Haridwar, which is a gorgeous city located on the banks of the Ganges River, near where the swirling turquoise blue river pours out from its source in the Himalayas.
When peering at dozens of colorful desserts on display at a sweet shop, the chandrakalas jumped out at me. I felt excited to try it, even though I had no idea at the time what was even inside.
After tasting it, I was in that rare blissful state that arises when you find something that’s just perfect.
After some inquiries, I learned is that chandrakala is a special occasion sweet associated with Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights.
To me, this makes the sweet even more special.
After trying chandrakala, I made it my mission to learn how to make them so that I could selfishly enjoy as many as I wanted, without having to fly all the way to India.
Well friends, that day has arrived!
What is Chandrakala?
Chandrakala is a pastry filled with dried fruits and/or nuts, concentrated milk solids, cardamom, and sugar.
The pastry is deep-fried in ghee, and then dipped in a sugar syrup flavored with saffron and/or rose water.
Chandrakala comes in two shapes, known as chandrakala and suryakala.In Hindi, kala means “art,” chandra is “moon,” and surya is “sun.”
The crescent moon-shaped pastry is chandrakala, and the round pastry with scalloped edges that look like sun rays is suryakala.
I enjoyed making (and admiring) the round shape the most.
The Filling
The filling is the same, so for our purposes, I am counting the two shapes as the same sweet.The filling is made with crushed pistachios, dried apricots, sugar, and cardamom. This combination is pretty awesome.
While it is traditional to include milk solids in the filling, my preferred version of chandrakala omits the milk solids.
However, I have included a version with milk solids for anyone who wishes to experiment.
The milk solids are referred to as “mawa,” and you should be able to purchase it from the refrigerated section of an Indian grocery store.
The sugar syrup is flavored with rose water.
Crunchy Deep-fried Pastry
The chandrakala pastry is made with all-purpose flour mixed with rice flour, and enriched with ghee to ensure a crunchy pastry.For deep-frying, I mixed one part ghee with about six parts sunflower oil, and it worked great.
Both oils have very high smoke points that are higher than the desired frying temperature of between 350 and 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
A thermometer is essential for this task, because getting the correct temperature is important.
You will also need a slotted spoon to stir and lift the pastries out of the oil.
Deep-frying is nothing to be afraid of. It isn’t messy like you would think.
Once you try it once, you will feel comfortable with it, and your horizons will open up, because there are many great things you can make by deep frying.
Cleaning Up After Deep-frying
After completing your frying job, let the oil cool before straining it through a fine mesh strainer (to remove any food bits), then store the oil in a canning jar until next time.Use a paper towel to remove the excess oil from the saucepan and discard it in the garbage. If you decide to discard your frying oil, put it in a disposable container, seal the lid, and put it in the garbage. Never put oil down the drain.
Rose Sugar Syrup
The images below demonstrates some of the steps for making the rose sugar syrup.You will see all the steps in the recipe itself.
Chandrakala is everything you dream it should be: nutty ghee butter with a tasty golden crunch on the outside; sweet and chewy with pleasing textural bits on the inside, and coated in a clear, sweet, syrupy exterior.
It’s just the right amount of sweetness, and heated slightly before enjoying, it is absolutely divine. The warmth releases the chandrakala’s intoxicating aroma.
Recipe for Pistachio and Apricot Pastries (Chandrakala) in Rose Syrup
Prep Time: 1 hourCook Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 2 hours
Servings: 12 pastries
Calories: 314KCAL
Author: Andrea at Buttered Veg
- Small saucepan - 1.75 qt.
- thermometer
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons rice flour
- pinch Himalayan pink salt
- 2 tablespoons ghee, slightly warmed (see notes)
- ½ cup water
- 1 tablespoon ghee
- ⅓ cup pistachios, ground medium
- ¼ cup castor sugar, see instructions for alternatives
- ⅓ cup dried apricots, finely chopped
- ½ teaspoon cardamom powder
- 2 tablespoons pistachios, roughly chopped, for the topping
- ½ cup khoya, also known as mawa, grated (see notes)
- ¼ cup cashews and almonds, ground medium
- ¼ cup castor sugar, see instructions for alternatives
- ¼ cup cranberries and raisins, chopped
- ½ teaspoon cardamom powder
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- 1 ½ cups water
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 1 tablespoon rose water
Sift together the flour and salt. Add 2 tablespoons of ghee that you have warmed to a liquid state, and rub the mixture together between your fingers to evenly distribute the ghee.
Add water, a little at a time, until the mixture comes together into a firm dough. Use a wooden spoon to stir the water into the flour, then knead for a few minutes, until the dough becomes soft. Cover with a damp cloth, or plastic wrap, and allow to rest for at least 30 minutes.
Castor sugar is superfine sugar. If you do not have castor sugar, see the recipe notes for alternatives.
To complete this filling, heat the ghee in a non-stick pan on low heat. Add the cardamom powder to release the aroma. Add the ground pistachios and the castor sugar, and heat for a couple of minutes. Add the apricots and mix and heat thoroughly. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
To complete the filling, heat the khoya/mawa in a non-stick pan on low heat, stirring continuously, for three to four minutes. Add the castor sugar, ground nuts, and cardamom powder, and continue stirring for 1-2 minutes. Add the dried fruit and mix and heat thoroughly. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
Heat the sugar and water in a saucepan, stirring continuously until the sugar dissolves. After it comes to a boil, add the milk. The milk will help any impurities to rise to the surface in the form of scum. Remove this by skimming the syrup with a spoon. Continue to simmer the sugar water until the syrup reaches one-thread consistency, about 25 minutes.
To test for one-thread consistency, remove a bit of syrup with a spoon. Allow it to cool, then touch the syrup with a clean forefinger, and touch your thumb and forefinger together and pull apart gently. One-thread consistency is when a single thread is formed between your fingers, and does not break. You can also test the consistency by letting the syrup drop from a spoon. If it forms a clear drop before falling, you are pretty much there.
Add the rose water, and stir. Keep the syrup simmering on very low heat until needed. If it gets too thick, carefully add more water and cook it out until smooth and the proper consistency again.
Knead the dough for a couple more minutes, and then roll it into a log. Slice into 24 disk-shaped portions. Roll larger portions into a three-inch flat disk. Roll smaller portions into 2 inch disks. Your disks should be quite thin. It is better if they are thinner on the edges and thicker in the middle.
Lay the larger disk on the counter. Place one tablespoon of filling in the centre and cover with the smaller disk. Use your fingers to press and seal the edges of the smaller disk around the filling.
Moisten around the outer edge, and pinch and twist the edges in a pattern to seal firmly all around the center. Leave the pastry on the counter as you seal it. This makes the work very easy. Complete as many pastries as will fit comfortably in your fryer without overcrowding.
Meanwhile, heat sufficient oil (between 2-3 inches) in a small saucepan on medium heat. Use a thermometer to measure when the oil reaches between 350 degrees and 375 degrees.
Gently drop the pastries into the oil and deep-fry until golden brown. Use your spoon to flip the pastries as they fry.
Remove with a slotted spoon and drop into the hot syrup. Soak for 2–3 minutes, turning the sweets over, and using a spoon to drench the sweets with the syrup.
Remove the pastries from the syrup with a slotted spoon. Place the chandrakala on parchment paper, and top immediately with chopped nuts.
Be careful with the hot syrup, as it is extremely hot and sticky, and it could burn badly if it sticks to your fingers. Be mindful of the sugar syrup’s consistency as well. If it gets too thick, carefully add more water and cook it out until smooth, and the proper consistency again. I found that as I went, my syrup darkened into something that started to resemble light corn syrup. That is still fine. It is extra flavor as far as I am concerned.
Prepare your next batch of pastries and repeat steps 1 to 7 until all the chandrakala are made.
The Chandrakala is ready to enjoy when the sugar syrup has fully hardened. You can store chandrakala in a sealed container and keep it in the fridge for up to a week, or in the freezer for a couple months. Gently warm the sweets in a microwave or oven before enjoying them again.
Unfortunately, castor sugar is not readily available in the U.S., and when it is available, it’s expensive, especially if you want organic sugar. To work around this problem, you can process raw sugar in a food processor or blender until fine. You want it somewhere in between regular sugar and powdered sugar.
Khoya/mawa is made from concentrated whole milk solids. If you were to make it from from scratch, you would heat whole milk to a boil, and then simmer it for approximately 2 hours, until all the water is evaporated and you are left with only the milk solids.
It can be purchased at most Indian grocery stores. I bought a solid block that looks very much like hard cheese. You can also buy mawa milk powder and reconstitute it with water.
The milk solids are very high in concentrated milk proteins, so those who are sensitive to dairy will probably not like it. This is one of the reasons why I designed a filling without milk solids. For those who love mawa, please go for the traditional recipe. If you don’t think you’ll love mawa, use the new recipe with pistachios and apricots. Either way, it is delicious!
Ghee is a form of clarified butter with a nutty, buttery taste, that is commonly used in Indian cooking. Ghee is generally safe for people with lactose intolerance. It has a high smoke point of 485 degrees Fahrenheit and it is shelf stable at room temperature.
Ghee is widely available outside India. To learn more about ghee and where to buy it, see Quality Ghee & Ghee Buying Tips.
