Lobongo Lotika Sooji Mewa Special

To prepare the dough, sieve the refined flour (maida) in a mixing bowl.

Add the softened ghee to the flour and mix it with your fingers so that the flour is mixed properly with the ghee. Add milk and knead the flour into a soft dough. Cover the dough with a moist cloth and let it rest for 15-20 minutes.

To prepare the filling mixture, heat a pan and add 1 tsp ghee into it. Then add semolina and roast it till it turns brown. Remove from the heat and let it cool completely.

Now add the powdered sugar, coarsely chopped mixed nuts, cardamon powder, saffron flavor with the semolina and mix it nicely. Keep this mixture aside.

To prepare the sugar syrup, heat the mixture of sugar and honey in water until the sugar dissolves. Once the sugar dissolves, add 2 tsp milk. You will see impurities float on top. Remove the impurities with the help of a slotted spoon.

Continue heating the sugar syrup till you get a single thread consistency. Add kewra and cardamon powder. Add the edible food color to get kesri color. Remove the sugar syrup from the heat and keep it warm.

To prepare the maida binding mixture, add 1 tbsp of maida in 2 tbsp of water and mix it.

To assemble, make 8 equal sized balls from the dough. Take one ball and roll it into a puri using a rolling pin.

Add some mixture in the center of the puri . Make sure that the dry mixture does not overflow and touch the edges of the puri. Add a raisin on top of the filling.

Care should be taken to leave enough space between the edges and the filling so that you can comfortably fold the puri without the contents spilling out.

Brush a little of the maida binding mixture along the edges. Fold the left and right side of the puri over the mixture until they just touch each other or come close to touching each other.

Now fold the top and bottom sides of the puri towards the center until they overlap each other. Push a clove into it to seal. The picture will give you a clear view on how the Lobongo lotika should look.

Keep the lobongo lotika on a plate covered with a moist cloth. Repeat the above steps for the other balls.

Meanwhile heat enough oil in a deep bottom pan to fry the Labanga Latika. The oil should not be too hot.

Deep fry the lobongo Lotika on low medium heat until they turn golden and crispy. This might approximately take 4-5 minutes . Care should be taken not to overcrowd the pan.

Add the fried Lobongo Lotika immediately in sugar syrup and gently move the syrup so that the lobongo latika is coated on all sides. Keep it in the syrup for 4 minutes. Make sure that the sugar syrup is warm when you add the lobongo latika.

Take out the lobongo lotika on a plate and let it dry in air for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes , flip the lobongo lotika on the other side and let it dry for another 30 minutes.

Serve it immediately or store in an air tight container.