Shankarpali also known as sweet diamond cuts are a crispy deep fried sweet snack made during festivals.

Recipe Snapshot

  • Prep time: 10 minutes
  • Cook time: 35 minutes
  • Total time: 45 minutes
  • Yield: 8
  • Category: Snack
  • Cuisine: Maharastrian

Ingredients

  • ¼ cup water
  • ¼ cup sugar ((or jaggery))
  • 2.5 to 3 tablespoons ghee
  • 1 pinch salt
  • ¼ teaspoon cardamom powder (or elaichi pwoder)
  • 1 cup wheat flour ((or all-purpose flour or both in equal quantities))
  • 1 cup oil (for deep frying)

Method

Preparation

  1. Heat together sugar, ghee and water in a pot, until the sugar dissolves completely. Cool down to slightly hot temperature, not cold.
  2. In a mixing bowl, mix together flour, salt, cardamom powder and the hot syrup.
  3. Bring the flour together with a spoon until incorporated. Use your hand to form a stiff, smooth and non-sticky dough. If you are short of liquid, sprinkle water & proceed.
  4. Divide the dough to 4 portions and smoothen them in your palm to form balls. Keep them covered in a bowl.

How to make Shankarpali

  1. Grease a rolling board and flatten a dough ball. Begin to roll to a 6 to 7 inch roti which is neither too thick nor too thin.
  2. Make straight cuts, spacing ¾ to 1 inch apart vertically. Then repeat horizontally to get sweet diamond cuts/shapes. (refer pictures in the post)
  3. Separate the shankarpali and transfer to a plate or a parchment paper.
  4. Heat oil in a kadai on a medium flame. While the oil heats, keep rolling the dough and making more shankarpali.
  5. Check if the oil is hot by gently sliding a small piece of dough. It should rise slowly without browning. This is the right temperature.
  6. When it is hot enough gently slide them one by one to the hot oil. Do not crowd them in the pan.
  7. Ensure the flame is medium to medium high and not low. Keep stirring & fry until golden & crisp. Remove to a steel colander.
  8. Repeat frying the next batches.
  9. Cool sweet shankarpali completely and store in a air tight jar.

Kiyaan Singh’s Kitchen Note

Keep this recipe as a working base: cook once as written, then adjust spice, texture, and serving style for your own table.