SURTI GHARI RECIPE – Surat Ghari recipe – Easy Diwali Sweets

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Surti Ghari or Surati Ghari is a traditional sweet dish from Gujarat, very popular in the region of Surat. These are maida puris filled with sweet stuffing mainly with mawa and nuts. Surti Ghari is very famous in Surat and hence its also referred as Surati Ghari, mostly prepared during diwali season. Ghari stuffing can be anything sweet.. mostly its filled with either semolina, mawa & nuts. My grandmother makes this often during holiday season or vacation time for us to enjoy, she actually uses sweet mawa with variety of powdered nuts and sometimes she also uses powdered dalia which is my favorite…. today I will be sharing the mawa, dalia, pista combo surati gharis…Enjoy!

To make the dough – Use all ingredient from table-1.  Combine Maida, baking soda & salt in a bowl. Add ghee to the mixture and crumble the dough, then slowly add water to make soft but firm dough. Knead for 10 minutes to make a soft dough ball and let it rest for atleast an hour. Cover with a cloth or plate and let it rest at room temperature.

To make the stuffing –  Crumble the sweetened khoya/ mawa and combine that with powdered pista, dalia & cardamom. Combine to mix and make smalls balls out of it and keep aside. If using un-sweetened khoya/mawa then combine 1/2 cup sugar for 1 cup of khoya and 1 teaspoon of ghee and warm it up in a kadai for few minutes and stir until it thickens. Once it cools, refrigerate for few hours to firm it up. Refer here for the recipe of UNSWEETENED KHOYA/MAWA and for SWEETENED KHOYA

To shape the Gharis- Divide the dough into 12 balls and slightly roll them out into thin puris, stuff with little filling and seal it. Then slightly press in the middle to flatten. Repeat the same for all the dough balls and keep them under a cloth to avoid drying.

To fry the Gharis – Heat 2 cups oil in a kadai, Make sure the flame stays at medium high… test the oil temperature with a pinch of dough and make sure it goes straight and then floats to the top and becomes golden brown. Start frying the gharis in batches until they turn golden brown on both sides. Remove and drain excess oil.

To make the Garnish/ Syrup – Traditional Gharis are usually garnished with ghee sugar paste. ( literally drenched in ghee and sugar)  It was too sweet of me , so I decide to soak them in sugar syrup. Melt sugar in water and heat it. In about 7-8 minutes over medium high, it shoudl reach one string consistency… check the picture to see the string consistency. When you touch the sugar syrup between your index and thumb it should form one thin string. at that stage you switch off heat. You may also go up to 2 strings if you wish to have a thick crystallized coating for your gharis.

To finish the Surati Gharis – Soak the gharis in the sugar syrup for an hour and then remove, garnish with slivered almonds and let it rest to set for few hours. Store in air tight box. The outer covering may appear slightly hard at first but afte soaking and resting it will set and becomes soft and just melts in your mouth.

Notes

• Makes about 12 gharis.
• They stay good for few days at room temperature and stays upto two weeks in refrigerator.
• Gharis can be finished different ways instead of soaking in syrup. 1. Once after frying the gharis immediately you can roll them in powdered sugar. If you follow this then the outer coating may be slightly hard and and less sweet. 2. Second method is after frying the gharis let them cool completely. Mix about 4 tablespoon powdered sugar in 8 tablespoon ghee to make a thick paste. Coat the paste all over the ghari and let it solidify for 5-6 hours.
• Stuffing can be something of your choice- play wit it… use roasted semolina with mawa and nuts or use just mixture of powdered nuts with sugar, dry fruits with mawa… infinite combinations!
• Use any nuts for this recipe, my grandmother uses Sarai paruppu too. Choose from almonds, cahsews, pistachios…
• You may also use roasted besan instead of powdered dalia.