Pahadi Panjiri Recipe

aerial shot of panjiri in a brass serving platter

5 from 1 vote

Panjiri is a North Indian sweet mixture. It is healthy, nutritious, and has a savory taste. Learn how to make traditional panjiri recipe for prasad in a few simple steps.

Prep Time20

Cook Time20

Total Time1

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Indian

Servings: gram

Calories: 4048kcal

Author: Hina Gujral

Equipment

Blender
Heavy Bottom Kadhai
Mixing Bowl

Ingredients

200 gram (1 Cup) lotus nuts (foxnuts or makhana)
100 gram (½ Cup) desiccated coconut
¼ Cup almonds
¼ Cup pistachio
¼ Cup peanuts
1 tablespoon edible or herbal gum (gond)
2 teaspoon coriander seeds (dhaniya)
1 teaspoon carom seeds (ajwain)
2 teaspoon dry ginger powder (saunth)
½ teaspoon turmeric powder (optional)
1 tablespoon powdered sugar
2 teaspoon cardamom powder (elaichi powder)
4 tablespoon ghee

Ingredients for the sugar syrup

2 Cup sugar
½ Cup water

Instructions

To prepare the Panjiri, a day before sun-dry all the dry fruits and edible gum. Store in an air-tight container.
In a pan dry roast ajwain and coriander seeds till the aroma is released. This usually takes 20 - 30 seconds. Turn off the heat and grind to a coarse powder in a mixer. Transfer to a bowl. Set aside.
Heat one tablespoon ghee in a heavy bottom kadhai over medium flame. Add gond/gum, fry till it pops up and expands in size absorbing the ghee. Transfer to a plate and set aside.
Heat remaining ghee in the same skillet. Fry together lotus seeds, peanuts, dry fruits till they are crisp and crunchy. Turn off the heat. Transfer to a plate. Let the roasted nuts cool down a bit.
Now in mixer make a coarse powder of roasted lotus seeds, dry fruits, peanuts, fried gond. Transfer to a large mixing bowl. Add desiccated coconut, cardamom powder, ginger powder, turmeric powder, powdered sugar, coriander seeds powder. Combine all together. Panjiri is ready for prasad.
To make sugar syrup, heat sugar and water in a saucepan. Stir till the sugar dissolves.
Let the sugar syrup simmer over medium heat. We need thick 1 to 2 thread consistency sugar syrup. A little bit thicker sugar syrup than what we need for Gulab Jamun.
Keep on checking the sugar syrup if it has reach the desired consistency.
Grease a large square baking sheet with a teaspoon of ghee.
Once sugar syrup is ready, turn off the heat. Add the powdered ingredients mixture in the warm sugar syrup. Stir to combine.
Spread the mixture in the baking tray of an inch thickness. Using a spatula or lightly wet fingers even out the surface of the mixture.
At this stage, you can keep the tray in the fridge to get set or leave at room temperature as well. I usually keep it in the fridge for 15 - 20 minutes. Once panjiri is set, using a sharp knife cut into squares.
Store panjiri in an airtight container. The shelf life of Panjiri is usually a month or so.

Notes

This is a Pahadi style panjiri recipe. Adding turmeric is optional. In Pahadi style panjiri, turmeric is a must ingredient.
Make sure to sun-dry all the spices, dry fruits, and the herbal gum a day or two before making the panjiri.
Do not dry roast the spices for too long especially carom seeds. Else, they will taste bitter.
Fry ingredients in batches and separately as suggested in the panjiri recipe and not all together.
If you are not adding sugar syrup, then add ¼ cup powdered sugar in the panjiri mixture.
Do not make a fine powder of the ingredients. Keep them coarse.
You can store panjiri for a month at room temperature in an airtight container.

Nutrition