About Panjiri
Panjiri is a popular sweet across North India. It is considered a good nutritional supplement for the brutal winters and nursing mothers. Panjiri helps nursing mothers in lactation, builds immunity, and boosts energy. It is more like a herbal energy bar. It has plenty of dry fruits, warming spices, and herbal gums. Hence, the taste of a panjiri is sweet, and savory with a hint of spiciness. Every family has its own heirloom panjiri recipe passed on from one generation of mothers to another.
Kumaoni Prasad Panjiri
In many regions of India, to celebrate Krishna Janmashtami, panjiri is made as a prasad (sacred sweet).
Krishna Janmashtmi is the birthday of Lord Krishna. Hence, panjiri is made for the birth mother of the lord as a sacred offering.
My family makes this Pahadi Style Dhaniya Panjiri as a Janmashtmi sweet. No flour is added to the Kumaoni Prasad Ki Panjiri. It is a gluten-free sweet.
The flavor comes from dry ginger powder (saunth), carom seeds (ajwain), and coriander seeds. A pinch of turmeric is added to provide beautiful golden color to the Pahadi Panjiri.
Then with thick sugar syrup, the panjiri is molded into fudge-like squares. This is an optional step. After the festival, you can relish leftover panjiri with a hot cup of tea as a sweet treat.
Ingredients Required
Lotus seeds – also known as foxnuts or makhana Desiccated Coconut – you can use packaged or fresh desiccated coconut. Dry Fruits – almonds, pistachio, peanuts Edible Gum – herbal gum or the gond is the key ingredient in this panjiri recipe Spices – whole coriander seeds (dhaniya), carom seeds (ajwain/omam), dry ginger powder (saunth), turmeric powder (optional), green cardamom powder (elaichi powder) Ghee – if you want to make it vegan panjiri, use coconut oil Sweetener – add only a tablespoon of sugar if you are planning to add sugar syrup. If not, then add ¼ cup powdered sugar. Sugar Syrup – it is optional to give panjiri a barfi/fudge-like shape. You can make it like a pinni ladoo or as a mixture.
My Tried & True Tips
This is a Pahadi style panjiri recipe. hence, the method and ingredients are slightly different from the Punjabi Panjiri.
Make sure to sun-dry all the spices, dry fruits, and herbal gum a day or two before making the panjiri. This process increases the shelf life of the sweet.
Do not dry roast the spices for too long especially carom seeds. Else, they will taste bitter.
Fry ingredients in batches and separately as suggested in the panjiri recipe and not all together.
Panjiri always has a coarse texture. Hence, do not make a fine powder of the ingredients.
Adding turmeric is optional. In Pahadi style panjiri, turmeric is a must ingredient.
If you are not adding sugar syrup, add ¼ cup powdered white sugar or jaggery powder. Reduce the amount of sugar if planning to add syrup.
After grinding ingredients to a coarse powder, you can serve panjiri as a mixture. If you are keen to make panjiri ladoo or barfi, then only add sugar syrup.
You can store panjiri for a month in an airtight container.
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