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
3. Maladu
5. Mysore Pak
Recipe Card for Sweet Somas:
Sweet Somas | Karchikai | Karanji | Diwali Sweet Recipes |
Servings: 15 Somas
Calories: 78kcal
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.
Print Recipe
Ingredients
For Outer Cover
- 1 Cup Maida (All Purpose Flour)
- 2 tablespoon Semolina (Sooji / Rava)
- a Pinch Salt
- 1.5 tablespoon Ghee / Cooking Oil
- 2 Cups Oil For Deep Frying
For Filling
- ½ Cup Roasted Gram Dal (Pottukadalai / Dhaliya)
- ¾ Cup Sugar
- ½ Cup Grated Coconut
- ½ teaspoon Cardamom Powder
Instructions
Dough Preparation
- Take the maida, rawa, oil 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
Filling Preparation
- 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 mixer and grind it to a nice powder.
- 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
- Now mix coconut, coarse roasted gram dal powder and sugar powder and keep it ready. Now we are ready with the filling
Somas Preparation
- 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 ½ 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
- Repeat the process to finish the rest of dough
- 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…
Video
Notes
- The rava added for the outer cover is to get a crispy outer. If you want a soft outer cover you can avoid adding rava.
- Instead of rava we can also use corn flour
- We can also grind cashew/pistachio to a coarse powder and mix it with the fillings. This gives a rich taste.
- Always keep the flame in medium to fry. High flame would make the somas turn dark red and also we would get more bubbles in the outer cover
- We can also use plain water instead of water-maida paste to cover the poori with the filling. Maida paste is used to make the the poori to close stiffly so the fillings will not come out while it is being fried in the oil
- We can also use somas mould available in shops to get the impressions
Nutritional Info
Nutrition Facts
Sweet Somas | Karchikai | Karanji | Diwali Sweet Recipes |
Amount Per Serving (1 Somas)
Calories 78
Calories from Fat 54
% Daily Value*
Fat 6g9%
Carbohydrates 4g1%
Protein 2g4%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
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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 ½ 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.
