Adadiya – Indian sweet dish for winter

Adadiyas have lots of childhood memories for me. During the cooler months in Kenya, my dad used to make these Adadiyas and they used to be so good that people used to order them from him. At that time, I was young and spoilt and would never eat them as for some reason I didn’t like the smell!! Now that I have started to make them, I love them and although I am a diabetic and shouldn’t have them, I have been known to sneak a bite from my hubby’s plate. This sweet is considered to be a healthy dish to have during the winter months. It is believed that eating one adadiya for breakfast during the winter months helps to keep you warm throughout the day.

When I was young, I wasn’t too keen on adadiyas but now I really like the taste. It is believed that eating one adadiya for breakfast during the winter months helps to keep you warm throughout the day.

Ingredients for 30 small adadiyas.

2 and one third cups (500 grams) of coarse black gram flour now being referred to as adad flour – hence the sweet is called adadiya!!
½ cup milk
2 cups ghee
½ cup of edible gum arabica (Gund)
1½ cup of sugar which should be ground using a grinder (you can add an extra ½ cup if you like it very sweet)
½ cup of finely sliced almonds
½ cup of cashew nuts
1 tsp of a mixture ground Elaichi and nutmeg (some recipes also mention ginger powder but I did not include it in my recipe).

Method

1. Take ¼ cup of ghee and ½ cup of milk and mix it with the adad flour and leave aside for 15 -20 minutes. (Some Gujaratis refer to this process as “Drabo devanu”)

2. Heat ½ cup of ghee and when it’s hot, add in a few bits of the edible gum to the ghee. As the ghee is hot, it will cook and pop the gum. Once cooked, lightly crush them using a pestle and mortar and leave aside.

3. Mix the adad flour and sieve it using a large hole sieve.

4. Add all the remaining ghee into a wok and let it heat on a medium flame.

5. Add in the adad flour and keep stirring. As the flour cooks – the colour of the flour goes from light to dark golden – almost brown.

6. Once the mixture is golden -add in the edible gum.

7. Now add the sliced almonds and the spice mixture of ginger and nutmeg. (Some Gujaratis also add a teaspoon of ginger powder)

8. Stir well and turn off the heat and add in the ground sugar and mix.

9. The adadiyas need to be formed when they mixture is warm and manageable.

10. You can either make them small and bite-size – traditionally shaped like a mountain or spread them out on a greased dish, decorate them with cashews and cut them in diamonds. Both styles look nice and taste wonderful.

11. Once cool, they can be stored in an air tight container for a couple of weeks.

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