This is an archive article published on November 10, 2015

Express Recipes: Wow your family and friends with these lovely urad dal pinnis

Here's a scrumptious version of the all-time favourite Punjabi sweet dish, using urad dal and mawa.

4 min readNew DelhiNov 10, 2015 05:49 PM IST First published on: Nov 10, 2015 at 05:49 PM IST

It is very important to roast all the ingredients correctly and mix the ingredients really well. (Source: Nisha Madhulika)

The Punjabi pinni can be prepared in several ways. We have already prepared pinni with flax seeds, wheat flour and dry fruits. Today, we will make a scrumptious version using urad dal and mawa.

For 18-20 pieces
Time: 90 minutes

Ingredients
Urad dal – ¾ cup (150g)
Sugar – 1.5 cup (300g)
Mawa – ¾ cup (150g)
Ghee – 1 cup (225g)
Cardamom powder – 2 tsp
Gum raisins – 2 tbsp
Cashew nuts – 20-25
Almonds – 30-35
Semolina – ¼ cup (40g)

Watch the video for how to make it

Method
Clean the urad. Wash it thoroughly and soak in water for 2 hours. Drain out the excess water and place the soaked mixture jar, along with a little water and grind the dal coarsely. Heat some ghee in the pan and keep about 50g for later to roast the dry fruits and gum raisins. When the ghee melts, add semolina to it, followed by the ground urad dal.

Stir constantly and roast the dal on medium flame till it changes colour to a golden brown, and the ghee starts separating from it, giving out a good aroma. At this point, turn off the flame and take out the dal onto a plate.
Now, roast the mawa. Preheat and add crumbled mawa into it. Stir constantly and roast the mawa on medium flame until it gets little golden brown in color. Take out the mawa in a separate bowl. Chop the cashews and almonds in small chunks. Cut few almonds in halves as well.

Now roast the gum raisins in the pan. For this, place the rest of the ghee in the pan, and when the ghee is sufficiently hot, place the ‘gond’ into it and fry on low flame, while stirring constantly. Fry until the gond puffs up and gets little brown in colour. Always fry the gond on medium flame, else it will remain raw from inside. Take out the gond in a plate as well. When the gond cools down, crush it finely using a ladle or rolling pin.

Now, roast the cashew and almonds in the remaining ghee till they’re golden-brown. Take out the roasted cashews and almonds in a plate.

Now, prepare sugar syrup for the pinni. For this take sugar and half-cup water in a pan and cook until the sugar dissolves completely. We need to cook syrup until it gets a thick consistency, which takes 2-3 minutes (to check, take 2-3 drops of syrup in a bowl, take it between your thumb and finger and stretch apart. It should form 1-2 long threads and be gooey in texture. At this stage, the syrup is ready). Turn off the flame when the sugar syrup is ready.

Allow the syrup to cool down, slightly. Then mix the roasted dal into it, followed by the roasted cashews, almonds and ground gond. Mix all the ingredients really well and allow the mixture to cool down a little, so that you can hold it comfortably in your hands. Now, add the cardamom powder and mawa into the mixture, followed by the rest of the ghee. Mix again, and the mixture for making the pinni is ready.

Make a lump from the mixture and roll into a round ladoo. Place it on a plate and likewise prepare ladoos from rest of the mixture. Now, press these ladoos into a rectangular shape and place two almond chunks over it to garnish. You can choose to make these pinnis rectangular, square or round ladoos.

Your scrumptious urad dal mawa pinni is ready. Allow the pinni to cool and then store it in an air-tight container. Relish eating these tempting pinnis for up to a month.

Suggestions:
It is very important to roast all the ingredients correctly and mix the ingredients really well.
If you see any dirt in the syrup then add 1-2 tbsp milk into it. With this, the dirt or impurities can be separated easily from the syrup.