Kaju katli
India's most-gifted sweet — silky cashew fudge cut into glossy diamonds and crowned with silver leaf. Two ingredients, one tricky step (the syrup), and one insider tip: the pros don't use expensive white cashews for this.
Ingredients
Makes ~25 pieces
- •1 cup (150 g) cashews, ground to fine flour (SW grade is ideal)
- •1/2 cup (100 g) sugar
- •1/4 cup water
- •1 tsp ghee (to grease)
- •Optional: edible silver leaf (vark), pinch of cardamom
Method
- 1 Make cashew flour. Grind room-temperature cashews to a fine powder in short pulses. Do not over-grind or the oils release and it clumps. Sieve for silky texture.
- 2 One-string syrup. Boil sugar and water to a one-string consistency (about 1-2 minutes at a rolling boil).
- 3 Combine. Lower heat, add cashew flour, stir continuously 5-7 minutes until it forms a non-sticky dough that leaves the pan sides.
- 4 Knead & roll. Cool slightly, knead smooth with greased hands, roll between parchment to 4-5 mm.
- 5 Set & cut. Apply vark if using. Rest 30 minutes, then cut into the signature diamonds.
The insider grade tip
Home cooks buy white W320 cashews for kaju katli. Commercial sweet-makers don't — they use SW (scorched wholes). Since the cashews are ground to flour, the slight colour variation of SW is invisible in the finished sweet, and SW costs roughly 30% less than white wholes. The scorch even adds a subtle depth. India's sweet industry — concentrated around Palasa in Andhra Pradesh — runs almost entirely on SW.
Troubleshooting
- Grainy? Cashew flour wasn't fine enough, or the syrup was overcooked. Sieve the flour; stop syrup at one string.
- Sticky, won't set? Undercooked — cook the dough a minute longer until it leaves the pan.
- Hard/dry? Overcooked syrup. One-string only.
Making sweets commercially?
If you run a mithai brand or cloud kitchen, SW is the grade to spec. Send an RFQ for bulk SW pricing, or read the buyer guide for MOQ and packaging.