GO VEGAN Days: Kaju Katli (Cashew Diamonds)

by Stephanie Ernst · 2008-10-30 10:39:00 UTC
Topics:

Now do these look incredible or what? Courtesy of Vegan Yum Yum (recently voted Favorite Veg Blog in the 2008 VegNews Veggie Awards, I should add), we have these treats--perfect, our vegan kitchen superstar tells us, for celebrating the Indian holiday Diwali. "Kaju Katli (cashew diamonds) is sort of a cross between marzipan and brittle. It has the sweet, chewy-ness of marzipan with the rich, creamy taste of brittle." And it's pretty! You can view the recipe after the jump here, but also head over to the original post at Vegan Yum Yum to see more photos and read more about this sweet treat.

Vegan Yum Yum's Cashew Diamonds

Kaju Katli
Makes 20-30 Diamonds

1 cup cashews, raw and unsalted
4 cardamom pods, seeds removed and crushed (optional)
1 pinch salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water

Grind the cashews into as fine a powder as you can. You can try your coffee grinder; shake it or rap it against the counter to keep the cashews from gumming up the blade. You can also try a blender, a food processor, or a mortar and pestle.

Mix cardamom powder, salt, and cashews together. Heat water and sugar in a pot until boiling. Add cashews and stir well with a rubber spatula. Cook for abut 5 minutes until the mixture thickens. You can tell it’s ready when it a dribble of it on a cool plate forms a soft ball.

Pour out the mixture onto lightly oiled aluminum foil. A lot of directions I read say you should let the mixture cool and then knead until glassy. Then roll out to 1/4" thick and slice into diamonds. I cooked mine a little too long, so it set up firmer than it should have. I just cut it after it cooled (instead of kneading it and rolling it out) and that worked fine, but I think the textured suffered a little.

Store in an airtight container in layers separated by parchment paper.

Stephanie Ernst wrote the original Animal Rights blog at Change.org until December 2009. She can now be found at Animal Rights & AntiOppression.
PREVIOUS STORY:
Kind to a Few, Horribly Cruel to Many
NEXT STORY:
Petitions Delivered Around the World for Release of Indonesian Circus Dolphins

COMMENTS (1)

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.