Vella Cheedai Sweet Seedai Recipe | How to make Cheedai Without Bursting | Sweet Cheedai Recipe | Krishna Jayanthi Special Food – Gokulashtami Sweets Recipe

Gokulashtami/Krishna Jayanthi/Janmashtami is round the corner and is one of the important Hindu festivals celebrated as the birthday of Lord Krishna. Last year, I had shared Uppu Seedai or Salted Seedai  and now I’m tempted to try its sweet counterpart, Vella Cheedai. The word “vella” in Tamil denotes Vellam which means Jaggery. Vella Cheedai Recipe Sweet Seedai is almost same as Uppu Seedai /Salted Seedai  but uses jaggery syrup for the sweetness.

It’s very easy at the same time tricky to prepare this popular festival snack. I love jaggery based sweets and in general when you pair it with rice flour,  it’s a clear winner. 

Unlike most recipes, in this Vella Cheedai Recipe Sweet Seedai, you don’t have the hassle of getting the right string consistency of the jaggery. It’s just the dough consistency that matters in order to prevent the Cheedai from getting dissolved or bursting…..Does this make sense?…..We will find out!!

Off to Vella Cheedai Recipe Sweet Seedai !!

Prep Work for 

Vella Cheedai Recipe Sweet Seedai:

You will need Rice flour and urad dal flour for this recipe. The preparation of the flours can be made 4-5 days in advance to save time and speed up the preparations!!

Preparation of Rice Flour:

Click HERE for a detailed post to prepare Homemade Rice Flour.  You can also use Idiyappam flour or store bought flour.

In short:

• Soak raw rice in water for about an hour. Drain the water completely.
• Spread rice on a cloth and dry it in shade (preferably inside the house under the fan and not under direct sun because it should not get completely dried).
• Then dry grind it to a fine powder. You can also grind it in a flour mill.
• Then, sieve the flour it and keep it ready.

This Rice Flour  can be used to prepare:

• Thattai
• Uppu Seedai
• Chakkalu
• Ribbon Pakoda
• Murukku
• Kozhukattai

and many more!!

Urad dal flour:

• Dry roast urad dal over low heat until the lentils turns golden brown and you get a nice aroma of roasted dal.
• Cool down and dry grind to a fine powder, sieve the flour and keep it ready.

Easy Steps to follow for 

Vella Cheedai Recipe Sweet Seedai

You will need!!

• In a pan over medium heat, dry roast rice flour until it is very hot. It should not change colour but at the same time there should be no moisture left in the flour…basically roast until the flour is hot to touch (bearable enough). Transfer to a bowl.

• In the same pan over medium heat, add roasted urad dal flour and roast till hot. Transfer it to the bowl with rice flour.
• Finally, dry roast coconut in the same pan over medium heat and set aside.

Jaggery Syrup: (Not String Consistency)

• Take grated/chopped jaggery in a pan/kadai, add just enough water to cover the jaggery and keep it on low heat. Less water, the better!!
• Once the jaggery dissolves and starts to boil, turn off the heat and filter it to remove impurities. Do not prepare jaggery syrup with string consistency.

Making the Dough:

• Sift the flours again to get rid of any left out tiny granules to avoid Cheedai explosions .
• In a bowl, take flour, add butter/ghee, a pinch of salt, roasted coconut, sesame seeds, cardamom powder and mix well. Now, add jaggery liquid little by little and mix well until you get a crumbly mixture. 
• Add extra water (lukewarm water) only if required to make a soft dough. The dough should be crumbly but at the same time it should hold the shape if you gather. You will most likely not need additional water to make the dough.

• Let the dough rest for about 10 minutes.
• Now, gently roll to make medium shaped balls from the dough. If the balls are too big, the cheedai will not get cooked inside, so, make medium sized (marble size) balls as shown below….smaller the better.
• Leave the balls for 20 minutes to half an hour to dry out before frying. 

Deep frying Cheedai:

• Heat oil in a kadai. To check if the oil is hot enough, drop a small piece of dough inside the oil, if it raises to the surface immediately, then the oil is hot enough to fry the cheedai. Now, reduce the heat to medium.
• Add 10-12 balls depending on the quantity of oil. Wait for a few seconds, let it get cooked a little, then gently turn over the Cheedai to the other side, so that it will get cooked evenly on all the sides. Do not stir too frequently as the cheedai will break.
• When they turn golden brown (see the color of the cheedai below- a shade next to golden brown) and the sizzling in the oil stops, remove them from oil with a slotted ladle and put it on a paper towel or colander to drain off the excess oil.
• Once they cool down, they will become hard and the colour will also become darker. The colour of the final product will depend on the colour of the jaggery used….don’t worry if they turn out dark!!
• Repeat the same process for the rest of the dough.

Precautions:

• If you are preparing Cheedai for the first time, please read through the recipe till the end and follow all the instructions & tips correctly. Then, you definitely cannot go wrong with this fail proof recipe.

Storing Cheedai:

• Store Cheedai in an airtight jar after they cool down completely.
• Cheedai smells and tastes best from the next day.

Print Recipe

Vella Cheedai Recipe Sweet Seedai | How to make Cheedai Without Bursting | Gokulashtami Sweets Recipe

Vella Cheedai Recipe Sweet Seedai is prepared for Gokulashtami, deep fried crisp balls made with mainly rice flour, little urad dal flour & Jaggery syrup.

Prep Time30 minutes mins

Cook Time30 minutes mins

Total Time1 hour hr

Course: Snack / Festival Recipe

Cuisine: Indian (South Indian)

Author: Padma Veeranki

Ingredients

• 1 Cup Rice flour
• 2 tbsp Urad dal flour
• 1 tbsp Grated coconut
• 2 tsp Ghee/butter
• 1 tbsp Sesame seeds
• 1/4 tsp Cardamom Powder
• 3/4 Cup Jaggery
• 1/4 Cup Water or as needed
• Oil - For deep frying
• A pinch of Salt

Instructions

Dry Roasting:

• Dry roast rice flour over medium heat until it is very hot. Transfer to a bowl.
• In the same pan roast urad dal flour until hot and transfer.
• Finally, dry roast coconut in the same pan.

Jaggery Syrup:

• Dissolve jaggery in water and turn off heat once it starts boiling. Strain and use.

Making Seedai Dough & Shaping:

• In a bowl, take sifted flours, a pinch of salt, butter, sesame seeds, roasted coconut, cardamom powder and make a dough adding jaggery liquid little by little.
• Mix well until you get a crumbly mixture. Make a soft dough.
• Gently roll and make small balls out of the dough and dry them for 20 minutes.

Deep Frying Seedai:

• Heat oil in a deep pan over medium heat. Once the oil is hot, lower the heat and drop in the balls in batches and fry.
• Once the sizzling in the oil stops, remove them from oil and transfer to an absorbent tissue paper. Allow them to cool completely before storing in an air tight jar.

Recipe Video

Notes

• Just roast the flours lightly as mentioned without changing its colour.
• The dough tends to dry faster. Moisten your hands, use little dough at a time and cover the rest with a damp cloth.
• You can also use the ratio of rice flour to urad dal flour in the ratio 8:1 measures respectively. Adding coconut grating enhances the flavour. 
• Add water just to cover the jaggery. Less water the better. Add jaggery water little at a time and make a dough. If you add too much liquid, you can't shape the balls, so take care while adding jaggery liquid.
• If the jaggery liquid is not enough to make the dough, use lukewarm water to make the dough. The dough should not be too stiff nor too loose.
• While shaping Cheedai/seedai marbles, don’t press them tight. This is to avoid bursting of Cheedai while deep frying.
• Uniform heating is important for crispy seedais. Keep changing the heat between medium and low.
• Also ensure that you make small even sized balls, so that the whole batch will get cooked at the same time. Avoid making big balls as the inside will not get cooked properly.
• The colour of cheedai depends on the amount of urad dal flour and also the colour of jaggery. The colour of the Cheedai will be on the lighter side if you reduce urad dal flour and darker if you add more. Similarly, darker the jaggery colour, darker will be the cheedai.
• If Cheedai bubbles too much after you drop into oil, it indicates that the fat content in the dough is more. So, add more rice flour to the dough & knead. Increasing the butter quantity than mentioned may cause the Cheedai to dissolve in oil.

Hope you enjoyed Vella Cheedai Sweet Seedai Recipe !!

Check out UPPU SEEDAI/SALTED SEEDAI RECIPE , other SNACK RECIPES & FESTIVAL RECIPES  from blog!!

Many more to come!!…..STAY TUNED!!

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Happy Cooking 

Cheers!!

Padma.