Chirote / Chiroti

This is a Maharashtrian delicacy. It is a deep fried sweet, generally made at Diwali time. My husband really likes this dish and its frequently high on his wishlist. So, a few weeks ago I decided to go ahead and make it for him. However, I did not want to have a fried high calorie snack within easy access to munch on every day. So, I decided to experiment with the baking process. I decided to make it the traditional way, except to replace the frying prcess with baking. I must say that the result was a resounding success. Now, I don't cringe everytime I eat a piece. It's guilt free good eats!

Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
4-6 tbsp oil
1/8 tsp salt
water to knead a firm dough
2 tbsp ghee/clarified butter
2 tbsp rice flour or corn starch
powdered sugar to dust over the chirote

Method
Mix together the flour, salt, and oil.  Make sure to rub the oil into the flour. There should be enough oil such that when you press the flour in your fist, it remains in a clump and does not fall apart. Add the water slowly and knead this till you have a firm dough. Set this aside and cover with a damp towel for about 5 minutes. Whisk together the ghee and rice flour to form a paste. Roll out about an inch of dough into a thin round circle (we will need a total of three sheets). Now spread 1/4 tsp rice and ghee paste over this dough sheet. Roll out another dough sheet of similar dimensions. Stack this on top of the ghee covered sheet. Again, spread some ghee and rice flour paste and layer with the third dough sheet. Cover this dough sheet with the ghee and rice paste. Now, roll this stack of sheet into a tight roll. Cut this into 1 inch thick rounds. Roll out each round. This can be rolled out so that the layers are visible from top, as I did here or form a rectangular shape along the other direction.

Preheat the oven to 300F. Arrange the rolled out chirotes onto a baking pan and bake for about 20 minutes. Turn the chirotes over half way through the cooking process, so that the resulting chirotes are nicely brown. You can also air fry these at 300F. Lower the temperature if it is browning too quickly.

Dust the chirotes with powdered sugar while they are hot.

Tips
If you want a more traditional chirotes, follow the steps till the baking process and fry instead.  When frying you can reduce the amount of oil in the dough to 2 tbsp. You can also make a one string syrup and dunk the chirotes in the syrup and let it dry before storing. The chirotes should be cool before storing otherwise they will turn soft. Instead of using the ghee and rice paste you can use softened butter (not melted, but at room temperature)