Atte ki Pinni

Pinni is made once, in the cold, and eaten all winter. One in the morning with tea is the tradition, and the dense sweetness is the point — this is food designed to keep you warm through a Punjabi January, and it works just as well through a Saskatchewan one.

There is no substitute fat here. Oil will not bind it, butter will not survive the roasting, and the pinnis will simply refuse to hold their shape.

Ingredients

• 2 cups coarse whole wheat atta, chakki-fresh if you can get it (about 260 g)
• 1 cup Gobind Ghee (about 220 g), plus 3 tbsp for the gond
• 1 cup grated gur or jaggery, tightly packed (about 200 g)
• ½ cup gond (edible gum crystals)
• ¾ cup almonds, coarsely chopped
• ¼ cup melon seeds (magaz), optional
• 1 tsp green cardamom powder

Method

1. Heat 3 tbsp ghee in a small pan on medium-low. Fry the gond in small batches — it will swell and puff up like popcorn. Keep going until every piece has puffed right through with no hard glassy centre. Lift out, cool, then crush coarsely.
2. In a heavy kadhai, melt the cup of ghee on low heat. Add the atta.
3. Roast on low, stirring constantly, for 25 to 30 minutes. It burns fast and it burns from the bottom, so keep the spatula moving and scraping. The atta will darken slowly to the colour of milky coffee and smell deeply nutty.
4. Take the pan off the heat and let the atta cool until it is warm rather than hot — this matters, so give it 10 minutes.
5. Now add the gur, the crushed gond, the almonds, the melon seeds and the cardamom. Mix thoroughly. The gur will melt into the warm atta and bring the mixture together.
6. While it is still warm enough to handle, take small handfuls and press firmly into round pinnis. Work quickly.
7. Leave them to set on a tray for a few hours before storing.

The ghee note

A full cup for two cups of atta looks extravagant and it is exactly right — the ghee is the binder, and short-measuring it is the single most common reason pinnis crumble. Fry the gond in ghee too, not oil; it carries flavour into every piece.

Tips

• Never add the gur to hot atta. It crystallises, the mixture seizes, and you get a solid slab instead of ladoos.
• Shape them immediately. Leave the mix to cool and the ghee firms up, the dough dries out, and nothing will hold.
• Coarse atta gives pinni its texture. Fine flour makes them pasty.
• Every piece of gond must be fully puffed. Under-fried gond sticks to your teeth.

Substitutions

Sugar can replace gur at the same weight, though the flavour loses its depth. Walnuts or pistachios work in place of almonds. Gond can be left out if you cannot find it — the pinnis will be softer and slightly less traditional.

Storage

In an airtight tin at room temperature for up to a month. Do not refrigerate; the cold makes them rock hard.

Serving

One with morning tea through the winter. That is the whole custom.

Nutrition

Approximately 260 kcal per pinni, based on 18 pieces. Estimated values.