All this recipe requires is a wee bit of patience & a cart load of love! You read it right, this recipe comes with all my love for all those of you who celebrated your birthdays, wedding anniversaries, engagement anniversaries and any other kind of special days this month!
A delightful quick-to-whip up homemade sweet treat for all ages, high on health & the fun quotient! Crunchy, chewy, melt-in-your-mouth, sweet – salty – gooey- molten caramel-a-tastic, guaranteed to send you straight to caramel haven!! Pure liquid gold! So what if you couldn’t celebrate with all your friends and loved ones just as much as you would have loved to? This treat will most certainly help lift up your spirits!
Ok, maybe caramel sounds like a daunting task to a few of you, but it’s actually a very straight forward process. Just use a heavy bottom saucepan to avoid burning & put on your patience-hat. Make sure you’ve got your ingredients together before starting out. And hey, if your teenaged kids want to make it, do supervise a bit while handling hot molten caramel ‘cause it tends to bubble a bit if left unattended. That’s it, you’re good to go!
The best part of this sweet is the fabulous guilt-free indulgence it provides, however small & unassuming they might appear. Low-calorie, protein-rich puffy balls, these are actually the edible starchy seeds of the Asian lotus plant and taste just like popcorn when toasted.
Bit pricey as compared to popcorn, foxnuts as used as the nutritious gluten-free & dairy free substitute for paneer in curries & milky sweets. They are low sodium and an excellent source of carbohydrates, potassium, magnesium, iron, zinc and dietary fibre amongst others.
Very popular in Indian cooking during periods of fasting as well as in tea time snack mixtures. (Recipes available on my blog already).
Hey did I forget to mention it’s an incredibly impressive recipe that your friends are sure to ask you the recipe of?
Recipe for Salted Caramel Foxnuts / Makhana – Healthy Sweet Treat
Ingredients: (Serves 4-6 Persons)
- 100 grams Foxnuts / Lotus seeds / Phool Makhana, roasted
- 150 grams sugar (see notes for jaggery option)
- 25 grams salted butter / 2 tbsp coconut oil for vegans
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 3 drops vanilla essence
- Pinch of cinnamon powder (optional)
- ⅛ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon sesame seeds / almonds / dessicated coconut (optional healthy garnish)
Procedure
- Grease a sheet of parchment paper or a baking tray and keep ready.
- Dry roast the foxnuts in a heavy bottom saucepan or kadhai for 5 – 6 minutes on a low / medium flame, stirring continuously until they are crisp & crunchy. Avoid burning. Remove onto a plate.
- Wipe the saucepan clean and return to heat.
- Keeping a low flame, add the sugar & allow it to caramelize slowly. Do not stir.
- As soon as the sugar starts to melt & turn golden, give it a quick swirl, without stirring.
- Repeat until all the sugar has turned light golden.
- On a low flame, add the butter, salt, cinnamon powder (optional) & vanilla essence and remove from heat.
- Mix vigorously and quickly with a spatula until well melted and blended.
- Return to the flame and mix again for few seconds, now adding baking soda. Switch off the flame.
- Stir continuously until it starts to foam up. Immediately add the dry roasted foxnuts. Caution: boiling hot molten caramel!!
- Mix quickly using a spatula / spoon & immediately spread out onto a sheet / tray while still hot. They will solidify/harden as they cool down.
- Try to separate the foxnuts while still warm & store in an airtight jar. They stay well upto 2 weeks if they are not finished before that.
- Serve by itself as a healthy sweet treat or as topping for ice cream / cake / cheesecakes.
Notes:
- Caution: No one can eat just one. Perfect anytime healthy treat for all ages!
- This recipe can be made healthy using coconut oil / ghee instead of butter.
- Similarly replace refined sugar with 3/4 cup jaggery mixed with 3tbsp water and boil until melted. (Proportion is 1/4 cup jaggery per cup of makhana)
- Add foxnuts, sesame seeds, almonds into the hot melted jaggery and then remove from heat.
- Toss foxnuts really quick in the caramel & spread out on tray while still hot. They will solidify/harden as they start to cool down.
The Culinary Konnoisseur 
This is a great one ! 👌and ❤
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Yes, it does look great and yummy! Got to try it.
Thanks for the recipe Amrita🙏🏽
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