Gulpavte (Whole wheat and jaggery fudge)

Gulpavte is a very traditional recipe that many kids of my generation might have heard of or even enjoyed eating growing up. But this dish has become pretty scarce now, and I myself had completely forgotten about it until very recently, even though I grew up eating a lot of it!

This dish is very special to me, because I saw my great-grandmother eating this every other day. The lady was a powerhouse of energy and was always on her toes - almost overactive for her age! Her diet usually was one meal a day - decades before intermittent fasting and one meal a day became fads - it was her lifestyle. So where did she derive the energy from? It was from the quality of food that generation consumed, and gulpavte was a frequently consumed snack. Made with the goodness of whole-wheat flour, coconut, jaggery and ample ghee, this dish was the older generation's energy bar. Perfect for breakfast when consumed with a glass on milk, completes your meal. Since this is on a bit of a sweeter side, do not go overboard 😁

Measuring cup used - standard 1 cup = 240 ml

Ingredients:

Whole wheat flour 1 cup

Jaggery 3/4th cup

Water 3/4th cup

Dry coconut 1 cup

Ghee 1/4th cup

Cashews, almonds and raisins 1 tbsp each

A pinch of cardamom

Method:

In a thick bottomed pan, add a tablespoon of ghee and roast the flour on low flame till fragrant. Keep it aside. Add jaggery and water and bring it to a boil. Keep boiling the mixture till it reaches one string consistency. Once done, add the roasted flour, remaining ghee, dry coconut, and cardamom powder and stir the mixture till it reaches a fudgy consistency. Turn off heat and add roasted nuts and raisins. As a variation, this recipe can also be converted to unde (laddoos). Once off the heat and at room temperature, take golf ball sized mixture and form laddoos.