Tilkut

Sesame pounded into the sugar rather than stirred into a syrup.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 400 g white sesame seeds
• 250 g jaggery, grated
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

Method

1. SESAME IS POUNDED INTO THE SUGAR RATHER THAN STIRRED INTO A SYRUP, and that is what separates this from a chikki made of the same two things. Its article says the sweet IS MADE OF POUNDED 'TIL' OR SESAME SEEDS AND JAGGERY OR SUGAR, and the name itself is the method: til, sesame, and kut, pounded. A chikki sets nuts in a hard syrup; this is beaten together until the sesame's own oil binds it.
2. SO THE TEXTURE IS DRY AND SHORT, NOT GLASSY. Its article's word for it is A DRY SWEET. It should crumble under a thumb rather than snap.
3. TOAST THE SESAME AND LET IT COOL COMPLETELY. Dry pan, low heat, eight or nine minutes until the seeds are pale gold and start to jump. Warm sesame pounded with jaggery goes oily and sticky.
4. POUND IT COARSE BEFORE THE JAGGERY GOES NEAR IT. A mortar, or short bursts in a grinder. Most seeds broken, some whole, and no trace of paste.
5. MELT THE JAGGERY WITH THE TWO SPOONS OF WATER AND NO MORE. Just to a syrup that threads, not to hard crack: this mixture is going to be worked by hand and a hard-crack syrup would set before it could be.
6. COMBINE THEM AND THEN POUND THE MIXTURE. Tip the pounded sesame into the warm jaggery, mix, turn it out, and beat it with the pestle or a rolling pin for two or three minutes. This is the step the name is about and it is what makes the dry, short crumb.
7. ROLL IT OUT AND CUT ROUNDS OR SQUARES WHILE WARM. About a centimetre thick. It firms as it cools and cannot be worked cold.
8. ITS ARTICLE NAMES THREE GRADES BY THEIR SUGAR. THE REFINED SUGAR TILKUT IS WHITE IN COLOUR, THE SHAKKAR TILKUT IS MADE OF UNREFINED SUGAR AND IS LIGHT BROWN. It is made for Makar Sankranti, the best is said to be made in Gaya, and the article finds the sweet in Buddhist literature under the name palala.

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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