Sesame Tikki/Sesame Candy

If you want a tasty treaty to fulfill your sugar cravings without piling up on butter, look no further - these candys or tikkis are waiting to be your best friends! 

These tikkis are no health food and definitely recommended in moderation due to the high sugar content, but hey, everyone craves a good candy at times, right? We think it's always better to make it at home rather than visit the candy store - not sure about you, but it will be difficult for some to resist the temptation to buy the store outright :)

Candy making is generally looked upon with fright. And for good reason. The temperature has to be just right and melting has to be done perfectly for it to be not too hard or too soft. In candy making difference between getting it right and ruining it is just a little. These are all valid concerns. However the recipe below is a good starter recipe in getting your handy into candy making - it's simple with minimal ingredients and does not require special equipment such as candy meter.

I have made this recipe a couple of times without using any candy thermometer and it has turned out perfectly well. But you do have a pay a very close attention while cooking - no parallel processing for this one. Do not be discouraged if it turns out too hard or too soft on first attempt; candy making is like baking and it can take an attempt or two to get the formulas right. But when you do get them right, you will be so glad you tried!
Recipe:
Makes around 20-25 small diamonds

Ingredients:
1/2C white sesame seeds
3/4C granulated sugar
2 cardamon pods - crushed
1tsp ghee or butter

Recipe:
  1. Roast sesame seeds: Roast sesame seeds in a skillet over low-medium heat for 10-15min or until their color starts to change slightly. As with all steps in this recipe, pay close attention, continue stirring to make sure seeds do not burn. Turn the heat off.
  2. Prep the candy rolling surface: Apply butter to the surface on which you will roll candy. I used a large stainless steel plate placed face down. You can also use a baking tray. Also grease a rolling pin and a kitchen knife which you will use to cut the tikkis.
  3. Melt the sugar: add sugar and cardamom pods to a large bottom pan and heat on low-medium heat until sugar starts to melt. Continue stirring constantly. If after 5mins sugar has still not melted, increase the heat gradually.
  4. Immediately after sugar has fully melted add roasted sesame seeds to melted sugar and mix well. Remove from heat quickly after seeds are thoroughly coated with melted sugar.
  5. Roll the candy: as quickly as possible spread the seeds/sugar mixture onto the rolling surface and using rolling pin roll it out evenly as thin as possible (a quarter of an inch thick).
  6. Then using knife make outline cuts to cut the slab into small squares. This step needs to be done before mixture cools completely. Do not remove the squares yet.
  7. Let it cool completely.
  8. Now using knife remove the squares/break them apart from each other.
Note: at a beginner attempt in candy making, you can also skip the cutting square shapes part and instead when cold break the candy using your hands. It tastes equally good :)

Comments

Anonymous said…
bookmarked these tikkis, look yummy. thanks for sharing.
PJ said…
thanks Anon for the lovely comment. Hope you try this and like it.
Hari Chandana said…
Perfectly made tikkis.. awesome!!