Khaja

The dough is layered like pastry before it is fried, and the syrup is called paga.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (ghee), dairy (milk).

Ingredients

• 400 g refined wheat flour
• 100 g mawa, milk solids
• 60 ml oil, for the dough
• 150 ml water
• 4 tablespoons rice flour, for the layering paste
• 4 tablespoons ghee, for the layering paste
• 400 g sugar
• 200 ml water, for the paga
• 4 cardamom pods, seeds ground
• oil for deep frying

Method

1. THE DOUGH IS LAYERED LIKE PASTRY BEFORE IT IS FRIED, AND THE SYRUP IS CALLED PAGA. Its article gives the dough as wheat flour, mawa and oil, made into a LAYERED dough, deep fried until crisp and then soaked in a sugar syrup KNOWN AS PAGA, which the pastry absorbs. The layering is the whole dish: it is why a khaja shatters instead of crunching, and why the syrup gets inside it rather than sitting on it. Its article also says the thickness of the sheets is what varies from place to place -- thin, nearly like baklava, or thicker and harder.
2. THE MAWA GOES IN THE DOUGH, NOT THE FILLING. A hundred grams worked into the flour with the oil before any water. It shortens the dough and it is why a plain flour-and-water version tastes thin.
3. THE DOUGH IS STIFF AND WELL RESTED. Firm, kneaded ten minutes, rested half an hour under a cloth. A slack dough cannot hold separate layers.
4. THE LAYERING PASTE IS RICE FLOUR AND GHEE, BEATEN WHITE. Four tablespoons of each whisked to a smooth cream. This is the thing that keeps one sheet from joining the next.
5. IT IS ROLLED, PASTED, STACKED AND ROLLED AGAIN. Roll three thin sheets, spread paste on two of them, stack all three, roll the stack up tightly into a log, cut it into finger lengths and press each one flat so the spiral of layers faces up.
6. THE CUT FACE GOES UP, AND THAT IS WHERE THE LAYERS OPEN. Flattened the other way they stay shut and you have fried dough.
7. THE FRYING IS LOW AND LONG. A hundred and fifty degrees, eight to ten minutes, turned once. The layers need time to separate and dry out; hot fat seals the outside and leaves the middle raw.
8. THE PAGA IS THICKER THAN A JALEBI SYRUP. Boiled to a one-thread consistency, with the cardamom in it, and the khajas held under it for a minute or two.
9. SOME ARE WET THROUGH AND SOME ARE DRY OUTSIDE. Its article notes that the ones served in Kakinada are dry on the outside and syrup-soaked within. Drain them on a rack for the dry finish, or leave them in for the wet one.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

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