Choco Banana muffins - easiest and most delicious muffins, new post after many moons

Yep, no talking about where I have been, what I have been doing, how glorious  my summer was, and the current weather now that it has turned into colorful autumn, and yada, yada, yada... Today it is all about cutting to the chase directly. Some day, when I am able to sit down, relax and write a mile long story, I will share all the good, bad & ugly of the missing months if you are interested. Life has been busy and full and I am not able to spend the time I would like to with my blog baby. I came back from the hiding due to the overwhelming response to my muffin picture on FB last week and all the requests I received to share the recipe. I sincerely think these super delicious muffins will make up atleast in part for all the unaccounted absence. And if you haven't heard, chocolate makes everything better :-) And yes, baking happened in the Sattvaa kitchen after many moons too..

A banana muffin is good and tasty but a choco-banana muffin is better and soul satisfying. If you haven't had one, I implore you to try this at your earliest.  This is such an easy recipe that delivers the softest, most moist and delicious muffins every time (and I should know as I baked 2 batches in a week). So DD was home a week ago for a short weekend and while I cooked stuff for her to carry, I also baked these muffins for her and her group of hungry friends. I had forgotten the blissful feeling that baking awakens in me until the aroma from the banana started to waft through the kitchen. The gooey chocolate, soft & moist muffins that came out of the oven just 12 mins after they went in were some of the best muffins that I have tasted ever.

As DD packed the entire batch to take with her, I decided to bake another batch just 2 days later so I could take some to work for my coworkers. The entire box of about 20 muffins was gone by the end of the day.

This recipe is tweaked from Nigella Lawson's original recipe. I skipped the eggs, used coconut oil in place of vegetable oil and added chocolate chips additionally. The texture is super light and moist. I don't like the taste of very ripe bananas personally, I use them up when they are just soft. These impart the best flavor in breads and muffins. When I posted the teaser picture on FB last week, one of the readers asked me about the variety of the bananas, I only use the the chiquita bananas as they are easily and widely available here, these are very similar to the variety called pacha bale hannu in kannada which have a green skin when unripe that turns a golden yellow and starts to develop black spots as the fruit ripens. You can use other ripe bananas as long as they are soft. As the size varies with the variety I have specified the quantity of the mashed banana in cups as well, hope this helps. The recipe below is for about 18 good size muffins but I also made them slightly smaller (for my health conscious yet sweet toothed colleagues) and got 24 muffins.

Feel free to add nuts of choice to make it more nutritious.

PS: Thanks for all the support, just when I think that nobody really misses me if I didn't blog, you guys pour your love and ask me for a recipe or leave a comment to say how you liked one of my recipes. Your love & support makes me come back even after an awkward gap on the blog :-). I will see you again with another delicious recipe as soon as I am able to.

PPS: I have another work related travel coming up next week and will be missing Deepavali at home. Here is an early Deepavali wish to all of you celebrating the festival of lights, may the festival usher in good times where people treat each other with love and respect. May Deepavali bring in the light to fill in every life with hope, joy and prosperity. 

What do you need to make the muffins? 
Recipe source: Nigella Lawson
4 ripe bananas (4 cups of mashed banana)
4 Tbsp coconut oil
1/2 cup brown sugar (reduce it if your bananas are sweet)
1.5 cup AP flour
1 Tbsp vanilla essence
3 Tbsp cocoa powder
3/4 cup unsweetened chocolate chips
1 Tsp baking soda

How do you make muffins? 

• Peel, and mash bananas using a potato masher or with clean hands so there are no pieces left

• In a microwave safe bowl put 1/2 cup of chocolate chips and microwave it for about 2 mins taking it out every 30 seconds to stir.
• Once the chocolates melt, add the coconut oil and mix it in. I use virgin coconut oil and it always stays solid at room temperature, so heating it helps it to become liquid. 

• In a large mixing bowl, take the mashed banana, add melted chocolate+coconut oil, vanilla and mix it well with a whisk. 
• Sift AP flour, cocoa powder & baking powder using a fine sieve into the mixing bowl, this helps distribute baking soda into the batter and not form bitter, untasty lumps. 

• Once the flour is added, mix it all in gently together. Add the remaining chocolate chips to the batter. 
• Line your muffin trays with liners and spoon in a big tbsp+half into each liner. 

• Preheat the oven to 400F and bake for 12minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffin comes out clean. 
• These are best had warm out of the oven but they stay good for couple of days and can be reheated. 

Notes: 

• I used coconut oil as I was out of vegetable oil but liked the texture and the flavor.
• Use good quality chocolate, I sneaked in 2 squares of Ghirardelli dark chocolates and I honestly believe the quality of chocolate makes a difference.

Avalakki payasa (or pongal?) - kheer made with flattened rice

I made this avalakki payasa yesterday for a celebration and was about to write the post when I caught up with the news and saw the devastation in Nepal. Totally lost my taste for the sweet payasa and got up to do something to distract my mind. All my prayers to the people affected by this wrath of nature, hope us humans are able to stand support and help them rebuild their lives.

After a day of deliberation, I figured I would write this post anyways because it is special for more than one reason. First, it was my father's favorite payasa (or rather his favorite deity's favorite dish :-)). This is a popular offering from the Udupi math, very simple to make, extremely delicious and homely, at the same time perfect fit for any occasion. Second reason being that we were indeed celebrating a milestone yesterday. The baby is ready to fly the nest and experience life without her parents by her side, this is a bitter sweet moment for us as parents and as proud as we are of our little bundle of joy that has grown up into a fine young woman ready to move out of the safety net of home, we are at the same time trying to choke back the heavy feeling in the throat. Can't imagine coming back home in the evenings that would be devoid of the chirpiness characteristic of our little girl, or getting to work without that warm arms around the neck wishing a Good Morning and everything in between. But that is another 3 months away and I won't think about it until then as there is lots to do between now and then :-)

DD finalized her college choice yesterday and is excited about beginning a new life on campus while we are torn between feeling elated and anxious at the same time. I have been thinking of my father and wishing he was with us still to share the joy and also offer those ever ready shoulders of his when I needed to lean on and anchor myself. I have never spoken of my father except in passing on this blog, even after all these years (time doesn't fill certain voids in life) it is not easy for me to talk about what he meant to me and the rest of his children. He would have been one proud & supportive grandpa for all his grand children cheering them on at every one of their achievements and offering the best practical advice when they needed some.

Avalakki payasa is a thicker form of payasa or kheer made especially on Janmashtami or Krishnashtami as avalakki is known for its popularity with the Lord Krishna. I make this any time we feel like eating a quick sweet since it hardly takes time. Given avalakki's innate thickening quality, this payasa tends to resemble the sweet pongal rather than a flowy payasa :-). You don't have any lentil and so it doesn't officially quality for being called a pongal. If you really didn't care about the name, then this is a perfect cup of dessert to dig into as part of any celebration - big or small.

I love sweets with jaggery more than white sugar. You can substitute jaggery in this recipe with white sugar if you prefer, that retains a bright white color in the payasa. I add ground coconut (ground to a fine paste almost resembling thick coconut milk), you can use coconut milk instead or make it with regular milk.

So here is my humble avalakki payasa as we get go through a happy life changing event. Being a weekend, I made poori, saagu and green apple tokku for brunch and we ate our avalakki payasa to finish off a perfectly sleep inducing brunch :-).

Note: If you notice the color or hint of saffron strands in a couple of pictures and wonder why I didn't call out that ingredient in the list, please note that it is not an essential ingredient. BH was helping me out in the kitchen on this said morning and he loves to open my cupboards and pantry and keep adding stuff into the pots and pans on the stove :-). Adding saffron was one of his experimentation (nammamma would feel very proud of the SIL since she loves to sprinkle the expensive saffron into most of the sweets too :-)). I don't discourage you from adding saffron but it is not needed.

What do you need to make Avalakki payasa? 
1 cup avalakki/poha/flattened rice (use the medium variety)
3/4 - 1 cup jaggery powdered (based on your preference for sweetness)
2 cups milk
1 cup grated coconut
2 green cardamom
2 cloves
1 Tsp ghee (clarified butter)
1 Tsp raisins
1 Tsp cashews

How do you make Avalakki payasa? 

• Take a heavy bottom pan and heat it to warm up. 
• Pick any dirt from avalakki and pour it into the pan.
• Roast it for 2-3 minutes until it crisps up slightly and loses the raw smell. 
• Take it out onto a plate. 
• Add jaggery pieces/powder to the pan along with 2 Tbsp water and let it dissolve.
• Jaggery starts to bubble up once it mixes with water, at this stage add the roasted avalakki and mix it in. 

• Make a smooth paste of coconut, cardamom and cloves with 1/2 cup milk in a blender. 
• Let avalakki cook in the jaggery syrup for 5 minutes or until it becomes soft. 

• Add the coconut paste at this stage along with the remaining milk. 

• Mix and let it come to a good boil on medium heat. Take off heat. 

• Heat ghee in a small pan, add raisins and cashews and roast until raisins plump up and cashes turn golden brown. 
• Add this to the payasa and give a mix. 

• Serve it warm or cold. 

Notes: 

• You can use thin or paper avalakki in which case just rinse it under water and add it to the melted jaggery. 
• If you are using white sugar instead of jaggery, bring 1/2 cup milk to boil, add sugar and let it dissolve. Continue with the rest of the process as above. 

Nuttery Buttery brownies - no eggs in this otherwise rich version

I have tried to stay away from the numerous groups of foodies online trying to cook to a theme, creating a dish out of special ingredient or cooking statewise food and many such wonderful experiments only because of time constraints. Not that I don't cook anymore but I just am not sitting down regularly to blog about it. Life seems to be on the fast track with no brakes, but the journey is what matters and I am having a blast. Will be more regular at blogging in a few months :-)

Having said that, I couldn't resist Gayathri's Eggless baking challenges which she re-opened up a month or so ago. I have seen her decadent baked goodies and have been in awe of how she figures out a perfectly eggless recipe for an otherwise much known eggy recipe. My baking love is extensively with breads as the process of mixing and kneading the dough to perfection relaxes me but I shy away from the more decadent, richer, sweet baked goods except on occasions as I don't normally use a lot of fat in my daily cooking nor are we as a family very fond of baked sweets. But then there is an exception for everything and a time for making exceptions, right?

I signed up with eggless baking group last month but didn't find the time nor the overwhelming desire to make the recipe as it seemed too rich, then the month rolled on, a new recipe was given to the group and not only did it look delicious but also seemed doable to me. And then the weekend happened, I had folks to share the richness with, so ventured in and made this eggless, dark chocolate, nut laden brownie today and can declare it as a successful bake. I blindly followed Gayatrhri's suggested egg replacements barring a minor change, result is a keeper brownie that is on the cake-y side.

And there was an occasion to bake this brownie too. BH & DD had been out of town travelling south from home for the last 4 days and then when they came back, BH got a couple of shot glasses (did I ever tell you, I collect shot glasses? just something I love to pick up from places we visit as a memento) and also got a dark chocolate guitar (totally edible), a super cutesy thing (DD said 'eeww' in a loud voice when she saw it and declared we were the weirdest set of parents one could have :-)) which I don't have the heart to break and consume. So it is all wrapped up pretty and sitting primly in the refrigerator. But as he handed me that guitar, I had the urge to make this brownie and take a picture with it so I could share on the blog (once a blogger, always a blogger and a foodie sees food in everything).

Reason #2, the recipe called for dark chocolate and I had this bag of superlicious Ghirardelli chocolates in the refrigerator that I had picked up sometime in December when I saw them during the holiday season and couldn't resist. I had no idea what I would make with them but since Ghirardelli is one of my favorite chocolates, I thought I would make good use of them some day.

So, with all the ingredients at hand, and Gayathri's accurate egg replacements, I whipped a batch of the brownies in under an hour (baking takes 35mins while prep takes about 10mins) and I was khush, so were everyone that ate it. I have a few packed up to take to work tomorrow.

I used regular home made yogurt instead of sour cream but kept all liquid to flour proportions same as the original recipe. This cakey brownie didn't miss eggs at all and it is a rich treat for any occasion. I would personally reduce the sugar to 3/4 cup next time as I like it a little less sweet. Other than that, this is a keeper.

Engage your spouse to be a helper in the kitchen but watch all the spoons and whisk if he is a chocolate lover like mine as they get licked off clean without any need for washing :-), the batter is delicious!

What do you need to make eggless brownies? 
1+1/4 cup all purpose flour/maida
1/2 cup or 1 stick (US measure) butter
1 cup good quality baking dark chocolate chips
3 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup yogurt
1/4 cup milk
2 Tsp vanilla essence
1/2 Tsp baking soda
1/2 Tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped mixed nuts (I used slivered almonds, pine nuts and pecans)

How do you make brownies? 

• Preheat oven to 350F, line an 8 inch cake pan with a parchment paper.
• Put butter & chocolate chips in a glass bowl, microwave for 1-1.5 minutes until they melt in. 

• Stop at 1min and give it a mix. 
• Add vanilla essence and cocoa powder and mix in until homogeneous. 

• Sieve the flour, salt & baking soda together and keep aside. 
• In a large bowl, take yogurt, milk and sugar and whisk until they blend in (1-2 mins with a hand held whisk)
• Add the melted butter, chocolate mixture and give a good mix. 
• Add the flour mixture little by little and mix it in well without any lumps or dry powder. 

• Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin and smoothen the top surface. 
• Sprinkle chopped nuts generously on top and bake for 30-35 minutes. 

• The center of my brownie collapsed a little but was cooked completely. 
• Take it out as soon as a tooth pick pushed in the middle comes out without a gooey sticking batter. 
• As it cools, the brownie becomes a little more solid. 

• Cut into shapes and serve. 

Notes: 

• This is a cake like brownie and not fudgy. 
• Do not wait for the tooth pick to be clean completely before taking out of the oven or it becomes very crumbly. 

Linking this to Gayathri's Fun with Egg Free Baking event

Marie biscuit choco logs, good for celebration(s) - no baking needed

Hey folks,
First off, wishing all of you, Sattvaa readers, friends, well wishers a wonderfully joyous, healthy, peaceful New Year 2015! May you all keep evolving into better people and make the world around a better place to live in. Hope you all had a great time celebrating in your own personal ways to usher in a new calendar year and made some resolutions too :-). I wish you strength to live through those resolutions if that was your original resolution :-)

Having seen a few decades go by under my feet (Na, not telling you how many), I am smart enough now to not make resolutions, but enjoy every step and every small change as an achievement. Isn't that what life is supposed to be? to be alive I mean, so here is another wish coming your way to be alive and make the most for yourselves and those around you.

We are currently on vacation (and hence why there have been no posts for the last week or so :-)), did some cruising around some great, warm beaches, ate & ate till the mid line split (almost :-)) and now walking till the legs give up every night in magical lands. I am sure that is enough information for all you smart folks to guess what I have been doing, having a wonderful time of my life. I may do a separate post with some pictures on it later. Here is one for the road taken on the road until then..

And something magical happened too on this vacation, I broke out of my fear of whatever it was and braved the odds with DD & BH on every single one of the stomach churning, free fall rides through blazing sun & chilling water. There was no pre resolution here but just the mommy instinct to be with the little girl who is so quickly growing up in the hopes of catching a few more moments together. I have been patting myself on the back for all the bravery I have been showing for last 2 days (and the patting also seems to alleviate pain in the aching neck & shoulder muscles a little bit :-))

Now that I have wished you all a Happy new year, it is time for you guys to wish me Sattvaa. The blog baby completes 3 terrific years and steps into a fun filled fourth. Still a toddler but trying to be grown up. I have said this before and I say it again that when I wrote my first post on that cold Dec night breaking into the dawn of a new year, not in my rarest of rare imaginations did I think I would keep posting recipes and sharing tales with you all this long. It continues to give me pleasure to come back and write here always. It has been a great journey with ups (from 3 posts a week) & downs (shameless disappearances for days), and thank you all for staying with me and cheering me on. I have lot more recipes and tales to share, keep visiting, share the joy with friends and keep the circle growing.

Back home in India, most everyone knows and enjoys tea time. I think it is a left over from the colonization effect. Many families gather around to enjoy a cup of coffee or tea with a plate of biscuits, rusks and other snacks. 'Marie' biscuits are slightly less sweet compared to other Indian brands and favored with the hot, brewed drinks as a 'dip in'. There is something special about a biscuit dunked in hot coffee or tea and eaten before it crumbles up into a soft mass.

Here is a no brainer dessert that turns this childhood treat into is a coffee lover's piece of heaven that requires no cook time or bake time. I have a strange relation to coffee, I love, love the smell of freshly brewed coffee and that is about it, I never drink coffee since I don't enjoy the taste. At the most, my system accepts a sip or two of the cold coffee. So this dessert was perfect for me and welcome for the family who unlike me enjoy coffee. If you don't like coffee, don't get misguided by what I have said so far, the taste is very subtle and I am sure you will get carried away by the gooey chocolate and the wafer like biscuit layer in between.

I know I had a lot to say about this recipe but I am missing most of them as the thoughts are a bit 'roamy' today and I am not finding it in me to be reflective. Though the post itself may not be as juicy to read, I promise the recipe will not be a disappointment. I will see you all again in a few days as we finish up our vacation and return back home. Shall we start?
What do you need to make biscuit cake?
12 biscuits, I used Marie but any tea biscuits will do
2 Tbsp butter
4 Tbsp powdered sugar
1 Tsp vanilla essence
1 Tsp cocoa powder
1 Tsp instant coffee, I used a starbucks single serve sachet
1/2 cup cold water

How to make biscuit cake?

• Pour the coffee powder into a bowl and add cold water into it. 

• Let it settle & brew for a couple of minutes.

• Melt the butter in a microwave safe bowl, add sugar and beat them together with a spoon. 
• Add cocoa powder and fold it in. 
• Add vanilla essence and mix. 

• Lay a sheet of aluminium foil or parchment paper on a working surface. 
• Take a biscuit, dip in the brewed coffee and immediately take it out. 

• Lay it on the foil and spoon a tiny bit of the butter mixture and spread it gently. 
• Dip the second biscuit and stack it on top of the first one, repeat spreading the butter mixture. 

• Continue to do this for 6 (or as high as you want) biscuits. 
• Take a generous spoon of butter mixture and apply all around the biscuits log evenly. 

• Fold up the foil and refrigerate for 2 hours or until it hardens. 

• Repeat for the remaining 6 biscuits.
• Cut crosswise and enjoy the wafery, cocoa biscuits. Cover and freeze back remaining portions. 

Notes: 

• I used nutella once but it is harder to spread. 
• Use milk to brew coffee if you want richer taste.
• Add finely chopped or coarsely ground roasted nuts of choice to the butter cream for a nutty crunch. 
• Add coffee to cold liquid, as otherwise biscuits will start to crumble as soon as you dip. 

• You can substitute the butter mixture with melted chocolate.
• Use flavored (orange, lemon etc) tea biscuits to go adventurous. 

Sajjappa - a traditional dessert from my home town to celebrate the festival of lights

Happy Deepavali to all my readers who are celebrating the festival of lights. If you are not into celebrations, you can still enjoy this traditional sweet from Karnataka. This is very popular in Mysore/Bengaluru region and I haven't seen or heard about it from other regions in India.

How do I begin to explain Sajjappa to someone if you haven't heard/seen/tasted this deliriously delicious sweet :-). If you are familiar with Obbattu/holige made with coconut filling, I could compare sajjappa to that in terms of ingredients. If you knew what a kachori is, I would say Sajjappa is a kachori with sweet filling (close enough but lot of differences). If you had tasted kobbari mithai, I could say sajjappa tastes like a distant cousin of it with added crunch. But if you were not familiar with any of these typical Indian dishes, I would simply say, "this is a sweet to fight for, a sweet to be enjoyed in leisure, a sweet that fills your cravings for all sweets and leaves no gaps :-)." Sounds convincing? You should try these atleast once.

When Nammamma made these as part of festivals or celebration menu, I have literally fought with my little brother for my fair share and secured it. This is one sweet from childhood that I continue to relish even after all these years. Sadly it is slowly fading away from most homes and a couple of times I tried the store bought ones on my India trip, they came no where close to the satisfaction bar. I had given up on these until I decided to try at home a couple of years back. After a couple of failures, disasters, heart breaks, phone calls etc and an unshakable perseverance, I have finally gained the skill level to make these without as much as batting an eyelid :-)

There are a lot of notes/tips in this post, guess how/why I am so knowledgeable? Been there, done that and salvaged more than once. So read through the entire post and once you are armed with the wisdom, go ahead and try out this slowly fading away dessert that deserves to be handed down generations to come. Since my generation seems to be philosophically bought in to the idea of 'less oil', I went ahead and tried baking sajjappas. 400F, lay the sajjappa on a parchment paper in a cookie sheet, bake 8 minutes on one side, turn and bake for another 4 minutes. Delicious, crispy outer cover yet moist filling, these were in no way inferior to the deep fried ones. In the spirit of Deepavali, I deep fried most while baked a couple of batches but next time onwards, I might just stick to the baked version.

Some potential mishaps and how to recover from them: 

• Keep that smile intact on your face and march towards the final goal no matter how bad the situation seems to be :-), this applies while making sajjappa or any other time in life too. I am in a free advice giving mood & mode today. Rest of the points below are totally practical and meant to help you get out of sticky situations, so go ahead and read them. 
• If you used more water while making the filling, just keep it on medium heat until it evaporates and becomes a soft mass. When you take a spoon of the hurana and give it a shape, it should hold and not collapse. There is no syrup consistency for this dessert.

• On the other hand, if the filling becomes too hard after it cools down, take it in a wide plate or on your counter top, add few drops of water and start kneading to make it soft. Hard consistency of the filling will make it poke out of the cover while pressing it and causes sajjappa to burst open in the oil, not a pretty sight :-)
• Trick to a great sajjappa is in the right balance of the filling and cover, the cover should be thick but not too thick so it remains crispy. Very thin covering will expose the filling while frying them. 
• If you removed the filling a tad early and it is still very sticky, get it back in the pan and continue heating for a few more minutes and test if the ball sits holding its shape and when you touch it with water smeared fingers, it doesn't stick to your fingers. 

• I really loved everything about the baked sajjappa, the fact that it is so much lower in calories compared to the other version is a HUGE BONUS. Give it a try. 

What do you need to make Sajjappa? 
Below quantities make about 25-30 sajjappas depending on the size
Hoorana or filling:
2.5 cups coconut
2 cups grated jaggery
1/2 cup chiroti rava/sooji (finer than upma rava)
4 green cardamom
2 cloves
1 Tsp gasagase/poppy seeds
2 Tbsp water
Optional:
ghee roasted raisins and cashews - chopped into tiny pieces

Kanaka or outer covering:
1.5 cups chiroti rava/sooji
3/4 cup AP flour (maida)
1/8 Tsp salt
1 Tbsp oil
3/4 cup water
Others:
Oil to deep fry

How do you make Sajjappa? 
Making Hoorana or Filling: 

• Grate or powder jaggery. 
• Bring coconut to room temperature if using frozen. 
• Powder cardamom & cloves. 
• Heat a thick bottom pan on medium heat. 
• Add 2 Tbsp water and powdered jaggery. 

• Mix until jaggery dissolves completely. 
• Add all the rest of the ingredients listed under 'hoorana' and give a good mix. 

• Let it cook for a few minutes until water evaporates and you see a soft mass in the pan. 

• Wet your palms, take a spoonful of the filling, roll it between palms and drop it into a plate. The ball should hold its shape though squishy and will not stick to the wet hands. 

• At this stage, switch off and let cool. 
• You can use it to make sajjappa once cool or refrigerate it for later use. 

Making outer cover: 

• Take all ingredients listed except for water & oil in a bowl and mix them well. 
• Add water slowly and bring everything together. 
• Depending on the quality of flours, you may need a little less or more quantity of water. The dough needs to be soft. 

• Once the dough comes together, knead it for atleast 10 minutes. 
• You will feel the coarse texture of rava turning smooth and soft as you need and the dough reaches an elastic consistency. 
• Pour 1 Tbsp oil on top of the dough, gently pat it into the dough, cover and let it rest atleast 2-3 hours or overnight. 

Making sajjappas:

• Heat oil for deep fry in a deep and wide pan.
• Knead the dough once more and divide into 25 equal portions. 
• Bring the filling to room temperature if refrigerated and divide into 25 equal portions. 

• Put a drop of oil on your palm, place the dough and press it to make a flat disk. 
• Put the filling portion in the center of the disk and pull all the edges gently to cover the filling. 

• Put the seam side down on a lightly oiled aluminium foil/banana leaf/plastic sheet and press gently into a circle of about 1mm thickness. 

• Ease this gently into the hot oil, flip a couple of times to get it golden brown in color all around. 

• Take it out onto a paper towel lined plate and let cool a little before digging in. 

• Baked version: Preheat oven to 400F, spread a parchment paper in a cookie sheet, arrange the flattened sajjappas leaving a little space between each other. Bake for 8 mins on one side, flip and bake for 4 mins on the other side. The baking times may need to be watched and adjusted based on your oven.

Notes:

• Nammamma makes it with only coconut & jaggery, since all she has to do is break as many coconuts as needed and grate them:-). I use store bought frozen coconut and was on my last packet so followed what my friend's amma used to do and added rava to make up for the deficiency of coconut.
• I was 1/2 cup short of jaggery and instead of making a trip to the store, used Turbinado sugar I had in the pantry, didn't make any difference in color, texture or sweetness. 
• Proportion of chiroti Rava to maida is 1:1/2, this yields a crispy outer covering.
• While deep frying, keep the heat on medium and fry until both sides turn light golden brown. 

• Adjust quantity of jaggery based on your sweet preference and also the quality of the variety you use. 
• Let the dough soak for atleast 2 hours, kneading it is important. Rough texture of rava turns smooth and soft as you add water and knead. 
• Overnight resting is great too if you want to make ahead, keep it outside on the countertop where it is cool.
• You can refrigerate the hoorana if you make it ahead but bring it to room temperature before making sajjappas.