Khajur Pista Mithai uses just two ingredients. Dates are called khajur in India and the recipe uses a paste of dates along with pistachio butter.
It is holiday season in India and gift giving is accompanied by exchanging of sweet and savory treats. This would make for a simple and elegant sweet treat known as mithai. It can be packed and gifted in a typical cardboard mithai box.
Instead of pistachio butter any other nut butter can be used. Keep the same nuts ground powder on hand just in case the batter is too sticky. Peanut, walnut and hazelnut jump as candidate butters to mind. If pistachio butter is not available, you can make your own by grinding peeled and blanched pistachios in a mixer or using a mortar and pestle to grind them. If not just make a powder and use it.
Same with dates. A paste of dates is these days available in grocery stores in baking or nuts section or try a specialty middle eastern grocery store. If not you can grind your own, smoother the better. Add a tsp of milk to get it going if required but refrain from adding a lot.
Our Khajur Pista Mithai recipe
For the khajur pista mithai we start with half cup of each, the dates paste and pistachio butter. Kneading this can be challenging. Best is to use a big plate and hands but this needs a bit of elbow grease in the beginning. Divide and conger in this case by doing smaller portions at first. The date paste is sticky and its best to apply some butter or ghee to the hands. We actually used our stand mixer with the mixing or paddle attachment. We had to scrape and run on high speed at start to fling the paste around in the bowl instead of getting stuck to mixing blade but then quickly ended up mixing at reduced speed quite easily with a quarter tea spoon of ghee added. Finish by kneading till you get a shiny dough which is mould-able but not sticky. If this is a problem add some nut powder and knead more.
Then make raspberry sized balls by rolling portions of dough in your palms. Once all are done roll them in a plate of ground pistachio powder to coat them. Its important to not make too large portions since this is a bit fudge like in texture and a small one bite portion is perfect to eat.
For serving we used a beautiful little silver platter we were gifted by our friend Ishani’s parents. We love the lovely pattern of carving on it and it makes for a beautiful serve-ware.
You can also pack these in a typical mithai box.
Khajur Pista Mithai
- Total Time: 20 mins
- Yield: 32 small balls 1x
Description
Mithai are sweet treats exchanged during holiday season. This uses only two ingredients, dates and pistachio.
Ingredients
- 0.5 cup dates paste
- 0.5 cup pistachio butter
- 0.25 cup peeled pistachios powdered
- 1 tsp ghee or butter for greasing if required
Instructions
- knead the date paste and pistachio butter till shiny and non sticky but mouldable
- if this mixture is too sticky dust with little pistachio powder and ghee and knead again
- Form into portions the size of a raspberry (about 32)
- Roll each portion into a round ball by rolling between palms
- Put pistachio powder in a shallow plate and roll the balls around to coat in this powder
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 10 mins
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: Indian
