Sweet Somas | Karchikai | Kajjikayalu | Karanji | Diwali Sweets

4 from 9 votes

Sweet Somas is a very popular Sweet Variety in many parts of India. Its referred to as Karchikai, karanji and many other names in other states of India. With a crispy maida + semolina based layer outside and a roasted gram+coconut+sugar based filling inside makes this Sweet Somas so scrumptious and yummy. This is a popular Diwali and Ganesh Chaturti Sweet too.

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 40

Dough Resting Time 45

Total Time 1 35

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Reading Time: 6 minutes

Sweet Somas | Karchikai | Kajjikayalu | Karanji is a scrumptious and famous sweet in Maharashtra and also in many other states. In TamilNadu we call this as Somas/Somasi. In Andra it is Kajjikayalu and in Karnataka it is Karchikai. Karanji is a popular neivedhyam for Vinayaka Chaturti Festival in Maharashtra.

Though this is called by different names in different places of India, the procedure remains same. We use maida and semolina to make a dough which forms the outer cover for this Somas. Filling is so simple and easy to make. There is no cooking needed to prepare filling. We are just going to grind the roasted gram coarsely and mix with coconut and sugar. We can also enhance the richness of the filling by adding nuts. This filling is then stuffed inside the maida based outer layer and deep fried to get golden color crispy Somas.

Alternate Filling:

Instead of sugar we can also use jaggery with roasted gram and make puran kind of filling and use it
If we have homemade or store-bought khoya, we can use the khoya as filling for this Somas. I have seen some Maharashtrians use unsweetened khoya and mix it with sugar and nuts and use that as filling for making Karanji.
We can just use dry fruits like dates, tutti fruit along with sweetened coconut flakes and make a filing and use it for stuffing

Baking Process:

Instead of deep frying, we can also make these Sweet Somas. We have pre-heat the oven at 390F. Arrange the somas in a baking tray lined with parchment paper and then brush each one of them with oil/butter and bake for about 12 mins. After 12 mins flip them and again bake for 12 mins.

You can also try other Diwali Sweets:

1. Adhirasam

2. Seven Cups Cake

3. Maladu

4. Motichoor Ladoo

5. Mysore Pak

Recipe Card for Sweet Somas:

Method with Step by Step Instructions:

Take the maida, rawa, oil/ghee and salt in a bowl.

Add water little by little and knead the flours to a nice soft dough. The dough should not be sticky but should be tough. Keep the dough aside for atleast 45 minutes. Meanwhile we prepare the filling and keep that ready.

Take the roasted gram dal in a mixer.

Grind the roasted gram dal to a coarse powder. Coarse powder will have more taste than the nice powder. Take the coarse roasted gram dal powder in a bowl.

Add sugar and cardamom to the bowl. Take a pan, add grated coconut and fry it till it gives us a nice aroma. We don’t need to fry till it becomes red color. A Light brown color with a good aroma is enough. If you use desiccated coconut, you can skip this step. Now mix coconut, coarse roasted gram dal powder and sugar powder and keep it ready. Now we are ready with the filling.

After 45 minutes, again knead the dough and make small balls out of it.

Take one small ball of dough and knead it to a small poori using a rolling pin.

Using a flat plate or a round lid, we can press the poori and remove the excess dough and make a correct circular shaped poori. Take 3 teaspoon of water and add 1/2 teaspoon of maida and make it as a paste. Wet your finger with the maida-water paste and gently apply it on the edges of the poori. This is to paste the poori to a semi circled shape after filling the poori.

Now take 1 teaspoon of filling and place it in the middle of poori.

Carefully close poori to make it a semi-circle and press the edges to stick it properly. Take a fork and gently make impression in the edges.

Repeat the process to finish the rest of dough.

Now heat oil in a pan, when the oil is hot enough, reduce the flame to medium flame. Gently drop 4-5 somas and fry it nicely on one side. Gently turn them to fry them evenly on the other side. Repeat the same to fry all the somas.

The crispy and delicious Sweet Somas/Karchikai/Kajjikayalu/Karanji is ready to serve. We can sprinkle some icing sugar(powdered sugar) on top of somas before serving which will gives a yummy taste for the outer cover too.

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Sowmya Venkatachalam

IT Engineer turned full time Food Blogger. I ♡ FOOD. I also love food blogging. Did you make a recipe? Tag @Subbusktichen on Instagram. I WANNA SEE!

16 Comments Hide Comments

ye, but karanji is the sweet dish which is prepared during diwali here. not for ganesh chathurti. and the stuffing can be of dry coconut, kaju, badam, kishmish and rawa. this is actual karanji in north.

This is karanji and made both during Ganesh Chaturthi and diwali in Karnataka and Maharashtra.But filling varies from jaggery sugar
dry or fresh coconut and nuts .

this sweet dish is well known at Maharashtra and is prepared during Diwali, and not during ganesh festival.
Also the stuffing can be made of grated dry coconut, rawa, cashewnuts, sugar, badam and kishmish.

Hi Geetha, Thanks for your comments. Read somewhere that it is being prepared for Ganesh Chaturthi. Thanks for pointing this out.

There is a Ganapati temple in Bangalore I forgot the name, where this sweet is made and weaved as garland and offered to the lord. Girls who are of marriageable age can do this to get married soon. It happened to some of my nieces.

Mami thanks for this receipe. I tried this just now. It looks awesome but looks like the outer cover has come out soft and not crispy. I did add Rawa to the dough. I am not sure what mistake I did. I have not tasted it yet as I have made this for naivedyam.

I tried this just now. It looks awesome but the outer cover seems soft and not crispy. Where could I have gone wrong mami? I have not tasted it yet as I have made this naivedyam.

Hi Rads, Adding Rawa/corn flour is mainly to get a crispy outer cover. We need to fry the Somas in a medium-low flame to get a nicely crispy somas. If we keep the flame high, then the outer cover will turn dark brown quickly and we think it has been fried and take it out and it will be soft. So try frying them in medium low flame to get crispy outer cover

thanks mami…the dishes are easy to make after seeing your recipes…usha

This is karanji and made both during Ganesh Chaturthi and diwali in Karnataka and Maharashtra.But filling varies from jaggery/ sugar
dry or fresh coconut and nuts .

Today My wife did very crispy samosa. Instead of rava, just add 2 tsp of butter and 2 tsp of sugar while making soft dough. Rest of the preparation as mentioned by Sowmya. You get crispy samosa. PS: I would have added photogrph if the option was given.